Life with Lyrics British Style
by yellow blaze
Summary: Human AU Of all the people to fall for, it had to be the one that the entire female student body was crushing on. Of course. Stupid Alfred. Rated T for mentions of suicide. Companion fanfic. Not a death fic!
1. Distracted

This fanfiction is written in companion with the following:

Companion fanfiction:

Life with Lyrics (Canada/Cuba) (sort of a songfic. When a song fits, it's added at any rate.)

Life with Lyrics- British Style (x- this is the one you're reading now)

Life with Lyrics- Lovino Style (Spain and South Italy)

Life with Lyrics- AWESOME Style (Prussia/Austria)

Constructive Criticism welcome, k?

Disclaimer: Do not own Hetalia.

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><p>Arthur tapped a pencil on his desk lightly. He had been attempting to pay attention to the lecture they were being given for a little while now, but was starting to give up. His eyes drifted to Alfred, who sat three seats away in front of him. The blonde wasn't even attempting to pay attention, and was too busy laughing with the albino german who sat next to him. Arthur sighed heavily. <em>'That git. We're being tested on this tomorrow and he's not even trying. Which probably means he'll be knocking on my window at 2am begging for me to help him study. Terrific.'<em>

Saying he minded Alfred coming over wouldn't be true at all. At least that meant Alfred would listen to him for a little while, even if it was only for studying purposes. Other than that, Alfred hardly seemed to notice when Arthur was looking at him. _'I wonder if this is how Matthew feels.'_ Arthur hit his head on his desk. Hearing another thump, Arthur looked behind him and noticed Roderich had done the same thing. Arthur smiled and leaned back, "Eyeing Gilbert again?"

Roderich glared at him and proceeded to clean his glasses with a cloth instead of answering, much to Arthur's amusement.

"How did you develop a crush on someone like that anyway?" Arthur looked back towards the german in question, who was now flinging balled up pieces of paper at another student just for laughs.

"How did you develop a crush on someone like Alfred?" Roderich answered curtly.

Arthur looked back at Roderich, "How the bloody hell am I supposed to know? It's always been there." He slumped over Roderich's desk in defeat.

"I'm well aware of that. You're talking about him every time we have a student council meeting." Roderich said flatly, hitting the top of Arthur's head with a pencil, "You're making it difficult to take notes.

"Deal with it." Arthur sighed, but straightened back up again, "But…Gilbert's constantly being called into the principal's office…you're on student council and have never had a mark on your school record. Seriously…how?"

Roderich's face turned red, but he ignored the question and continued copying down what was on the board.

Arthur looked blankly at Alfred and Gilbert, who had now both turned and were staring at them. Arthur, who was still half-leaning on Roderich's desk raised one eyebrow at them questioningly. He saw Gilbert lean over and whisper something to Alfred, whatever it was caused Alfred to laugh out loud.

Arthur made a face and looked back at Roderich who had looked up.

"Were they making fun of us?" Roderich asked blankly.

"Looks like it." Arthur commented, ignoring the laughter that was coming from the front of the room.

"Alfred and Gilbert! Either pay attention or go to the office!" The teacher snapped at both of them, "You are disrupting the class!"

Arthur turned back to the front and smiled in amusement at Alfred who was now sulking. Gilbert on the other hand, had stuck his tongue out at the teacher the moment she turned her back again.

"How did we fall for the class clowns?" Roderich moaned, slumping over his own desk.

"Somehow we managed." Arthur groaned.

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><p>SHORT first chapter. But I had an idea of how I wanted this to play out, which is why only one of the companion fics started out as a songfic. Leave me a review? :D<p> 


	2. Student Council

I'm amazed I had one or two people like this one. I thought the first chapter was crap. Hopefully I do better with the second one. Arthur is probably one of four who will not go home early. :T Cuz the other three did. XD Anyway, I love my reviewers, thank you :D

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><p>It took all of Arthur's composure not to bust up laughing at Alfred and Gilbert being sent to the principal's office. He could already see Alfred's pouting face in his mind.<p>

"Well. The teacher isn't taking any disruptions today." Roderich commented quietly.

Arthur nodded, stifling the laughter with one hand, "He's going to be pitching a fit."

Roderich smiled and went back to copying notes, "At least it's easier to focus now."

"Yes, there's no silver-haired delinquent sitting at the front of the room." Arthur waited to see his friend's reaction, which was a glare.

Arthur laughed and turned back around to face the front of the room. He was about to start taking notes of his own when the bell rang, "Ah bloody hell…"

"Shouldn't have been teasing me." Roderich smiled at him before heading out.

Arthur sighed and made a mental note to study the textbook when he got home. He grabbed his notebook and hurried out of the room after Roderich, "I wonder if Alfred will get a detention?"

"Probably just a warning…but then again, he was encouraging Gilbert, so he might." Roderich commented.

Arthur carried his small pile of textbooks and notebooks with a thoughtful expression.

"He'll still show up at your house at the rudest possible moment and beg for a study session though." Roderich said flatly.

Arthur's face turned red, "That's not at all what I was thinking about!"

"I never said it was." Roderich gave him a half-smirk.

Arthur sighed heavily but started to head off to his next class.

"We have a meeting remember?" Roderich called.

"Oh that's right." Arthur froze and quickly changed direction, hurrying after Roderich again, "How long will the meeting take, do you think?"

"Depends on how long it takes us to get organized." Roderich sighed, referring to the chaos that was usually in the student council room.

"Well that means the rest of classes are out." Arthur stopped by his locker and threw his pile of books inside before slamming the door shut, "Onwards."

"You could at least close it quietly." Roderich sighed.

"What does it matter? It's a door." Arthur gaped at him.

"Still…it's rude to slam something that loudly."

"Oh whatever. Can we just go?" Arthur sighed, not wanting to get into a lecture.

Roderich sighed but led the way to the student council room. He pushed open the door and found what they had been expecting: a mess.

"How do we leave this tidy and we come back…" Arthur started.

"And it's a disaster. I swear someone trashes it on purpose." Roderich sighed, starting to pick up loose papers.

"Probably Gilbert." Arthur snorted, dumping a pile of empty folder files into the open filing cabinet.

"There's no evidence it's him." Roderich glared at Arthur before moving to pick up a book that was laying on the floor.

"I said probably." Arthur sighed, continuing to clean up around the cabinet.

"How long have we been at this?" Roderich slumped in a chair.

"Well we've officially beaten our old record by thirty minutes. And in response to your question, one hour." Arthur picked up another stack of papers and shoved them in another drawer, giving up on organizing them by category.

"You realize we're going to have to file that later?" Roderich glared at him.

"Yes, yes. Just as long as it's off the floor and we can focus on the present issues." Arthur shrugged, picking up another pile that Roderich had set on the table.

"Fine, what are the present issues?" Roderich pulled an envelope out from underneath papers that had been dumped on top and opened it, "Oh guest speaker tomorrow…talking to the whole school…we should all fit in the auditorium. As long as he takes it one grade at a time."

"Yes." Arthur agreed quietly, "What is he speaking on?"

"Doesn't say." Roderich shrugged, "So…we need to send copies of this memo, and an addendum to the teachers…"

"Send it to the office and let them make the copies and route it around." Arthur stated flatly, dropping a mess of papers and folders into the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. He kicked it shut with his shoe, finding it only resisted slightly. "Hm. I can get a bit more in this one."

Roderich gave him a disapproving glare, "We don't have the budget for a new one, you know."

"I'm aware of that." Arthur pulled the drawer open again and began stuffing more papers in.

Roderich sighed and re-read the memo before writing a note in neat handwriting on the bottom, "Okay. So we're forwarding this to the office…and what's this?" Roderich pulled out another piece of paper and looked at it, "Volunteers for a mission for change? What is that?"

"No clue." Arthur walked over and peered over his shoulder.

"Pending reaction to the presentation tomorrow…four students will be selected to participate in a mission for change. That doesn't explain what it is." Roderich sighed in frustration.

"Well just approve it and forward it on, any change that comes to this school has to be for the better. Certainly can't get a worse rating from the school board." Arthur commented.

"True." Roderich sighed, signing the document and placing it on top of the other one, "So next we have…issue with sports in gym class…submitted by an anonymous student…no touch sports. Well it does get rather violent…"

"Quite." Arthur spoke up, "I'm all for motioning that one. Or at least change tackle football to tag football, not full out knock-your-bloody-face-into-the-mud football." Arthur grumbled.

"Personal experience?" Roderich asked, signing it and placing the paper with the other two.

"Quite." Arthur brushed his hands together, "All done."

Roderich looked up in surprise and found the floor and table spotless, "That was fast." He looked at the small filing cabinet that Arthur had somehow managed to stuff everything into, "Do I want to know how?"

"No. Just don't open those." Arthur pointed to the drawers and sat beside Roderich, "Next issue."

Roderich glared at him but took out the next paper, "Let's see…more funding for sports teams."

Arthur took the paper and read who was submitted it by before crumbling it and tossing the paper over his shoulder, "They can earn their own funding, next."

"Resident hero, I take it?" Roderich sighed before pulling out the next paper.

"I don't know why he signs his papers like that." Arthur sighed, referring to Alfred.

"Hm…more teacher involvement with school bullying? Well…we need more specific details. The teachers do everything they can once it's reported…" Roderich frowned.

"So just make a note to maybe have the teachers come up with ideas." Arthur sighed, already bored.

"I feel like we're passing all the work on to someone else." Roderich added the note and put it on the pile for the office.

"We're the student council. We don't do everything." Arthur slumped back in his chair.

"True." Roderich pulled out the next paper, "Okay then…" He looked over his shoulder at the crumbled up piece of paper before looking at Arthur again, "You're picking that up."

"I know I am!" Arthur looked at Roderich in disbelief, "Geez."

Arthur reached past Roderich and peered inside the envelope, "We're going to be here all day aren't we?"

"Not if you help me with this." Roderich snapped.

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><p>I could make this continue on for quite some time. But I won't. XD And yes, the student council consists of TWO people. Just two. So leave me a review? :D<p> 


	3. I missed my sleep

Well I got more ninja-readers adding alerts and favorite story, so I'm going to assume that people like this once again. Though I did get more reviews this time around, so yay 3 This chapter may come off as confusing, hopefully not. It's going to be Arthur's pov and Alfred's pov in this chapter. For reasons that will become clear.

Warning: Suicide mentioned by guest speaker

And so here we go:

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><p>.<p>

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Arthur groaned as his alarm clock started going off. Student council had so many problems come up, and most of them submitted by the same person, he had made a mental note to hit the certain student over the head, but ended up completely forgetting about it. And then OF COURSE the same person would have to show up knocking on the window at 2 AM wanting a study session. And being the gentleman he was, Arthur wasn't going to slam the window shut.

But now he suffered for it. Arthur slammed the top of the clock and forced himself upright, blinking blearily at his surroundings. He dimly remembered Alfred leaving the room around 4…or was it 5? Either way, two hours was not enough sleep for someone in high school. Especially not someone who had to stay awake for an assembly due to take place that morning. In less than two hours. Arthur shook his head and stumbled from his bedroom, wandering over to the bathroom.

Promptly, sticking his head under the faucet, he let cold water run over the back of his head in an attempt to wake himself up. It worked. Sort of. Arthur stumbled back across to his bedroom, and yanked open a dresser drawer to find an outfit for the day. He hit his forehead on the top of his dresser and just stood in one spot, half tempted in just curling back up in bed to get more sleep. "Roderich would never let me hear the end of it…" Arthur sighed before pulling out a random shirt and jeans.

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Alfred had ended up staying up the whole night, so he was completely energetic and bouncing around the house. "Come on, Mattie! Let's go let's go!"

"Shut up…" Matthew wandered into the kitchen, rubbing his head with a sleepy expression, "Since when are you so energetic in the morning…"

"Pulled an all-nighter, I got energy to spare!" Alfred pumped his fist in the air before handing Matthew a plate of pancakes…a plate of green pancakes.

Matthew clapped a hand over his mouth at the gag reflex and promptly threw them in the trashcan when Alfred's back was turned, plate and all, "Thanks Alfred."

"No problem! Let's go!" Alfred bounced out of the room, completely oblivious to what his brother had done with the breakfast.

"Yeah sure." Matthew sighed, grabbing his backpack and walking out of the house after his brother.

"You ate that fast." Alfred looked over his shoulder, at the end of the sidewalk already.

Matthew just shrugged and walked past him without saying anything.

"Dude you must be super hungry in the morning~ You eat your breakfast before the rest of us even turn around!" Alfred skipped along behind him, "…you are eating it right?"

"Yes Alfred." Matthew sighed heavily.

Alfred tilted his head slightly in concern, "Your ribs still hurt? I can still take you to the hospital!" It would be totally heroic to escort his brother to the hospital!

"NO, AND NO." Matthew snapped.

"Aw, man, seriously. . ." Alfred pouted but let the subject drop after that.

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Arthur arrived at school, dropping his backpack into his locker without a second thought. "What time is that assembly…"

"Now." Roderich said flatly, appearing beside him.

"Oh of course it is. We're not sitting with our first class?" Arthur asked, shutting his locker door and following along.

"No. It doesn't much matter where we sit. As long as we fill in all the seats and don't leave empty spaces." Roderich commented, he sounded like a teacher.

Arthur just let out a sigh and walked into the already dark auditorium, "Ugh. How are we supposed to bloody see?"

"Just walk down the aisle." Roderich grumbled.

Arthur ended up finding two seats at the end of a row near the front and plopped down in one. Roderich sat next to him, crossing his arms, "This had better be good."

"It didn't say what the subject was, did it?" Arthur asked, ignoring the inane chatter of the students around him.

"No."

Arthur looked back front again, watching as students milled in around them to claim empty seats.

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"Oh man, assembly! Hurry up Mattie!" Alfred dragged Matthew along behind him to the auditorium.

"Slow down!" Matthew sighed, "You don't have to be in such a hurry!"

"I wanna get a good seat! It might be something totally awesome!" Alfred grinned.

"And it might be something totally boring." Matthew grumbled, but tried to quicken his pace to match his brother's long strides.

Alfred found them two seats near the front and sat down, bouncing up and down in his seat like a child would, "This is gonna be awesome! We get out of class! Hey if it takes long enough, maybe I won't have to worry about that test after all!"

"That's why you were up all night." Matthew slapped a hand to his forehead, "You went over to Arthur's house again, didn't you?"

"Well yeah. He's got notes from every single day, well except for yesterday, but no big deal on that! I don't think we covered anything important." Alfred shrugged it off.

Matthew just gave him a blank look, "And didn't you get sent to the office yesterday during that class?"

"Well yeah. Meh. He got distracted by me and Gilbert having a totally fun time." Alfred gave Matthew a thumbs-up, "Hey! Arthur's sitting across the aisle from us!"

Matthew sighed heavily.

Alfred leaned forward, trying to catch Arthur's attention, but it seemed the green-eyed male was looking for someone in the crowd of people. Alfred pouted and leaned back again.

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"Can I have your attention?" A male speaker tapped the microphone up on the stage.

Arthur was already half-falling asleep, "About time…"

"No sleep I take it?" Roderich whispered, with an all-knowing smile.

"Shut up, git." Arthur glared at him before turning his attention forward.

Arthur leaned back in his seat, trying to find a comfortable position, hopefully whatever this was, didn't take too long and they could leave and get back to class. Where that test was waiting. He did NOT want to miss a perfectly good night's sleep for nothing.

"I understand some of you would much rather be in class right now…some of you would rather not be in school at all…some of you would do anything to get out of class…" The speaker started.

Arthur rolled his eyes and slapped a hand to his forehead, "It's speakers like these that make these things drag on. Just get to the damn point already." He could hear Roderich laughing at his comment.

"And there is a minority of you…sitting in this room at this very moment…who wouldn't want to be here or anywhere at all."

Arthur raised both eyebrows at the speaker, now slightly more alert than he had been before, "What is this about?"

Roderich just gave a heavy sigh, "This is one of _those_ speakers, isn't it?"

Arthur looked at him in confusion, but Roderich didn't clarify.

"I know to many of you, this may seem like a big joke, but I assure you, this is no laughing matter. The teenage suicide rate has increased this past year, and there are many speakers going around to different schools to try and educate the student body to be more attentive of their surroundings."

Arthur held his head in his hands, "Oh…my…word…I missed sleep…for this."

Roderich nodded in silence, "For this."

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Alfred just listened in awed silence. He leaned forward and noticed Arthur looked like he was complaining to Roderich. Out of the corner of his eye, Alfred could see Matthew was completely focused on the speaker. Alfred turned back forward again and continued listening.

"Every single teenage suicide can be prevented. Look at your fellow students around you. How many of you talked to, on a daily basis? How many of the students around you, do you notice, but never bother to do anything about, walk by themselves to every class? Who don't have friends to talk to like you might?"

Alfred looked around him at all the different heads who were doing the same thing he was. His eyes met Arthur's briefly and he couldn't resist waving.

.

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Arthur rolled his eyes but did a half-wave in response and turned back to the front in annoyance.

"Would you notice, if that one person you never spoke to, stopped coming to school? If they never showed up again to class, would you wonder why?"

"Well who wouldn't?" Roderich grumbled under his breath, but still loud enough for Arthur to hear him.

Arthur looked at Roderich in silence before turning back to the front.

"How many of your classmates suffer in silence because they don't want to burden their troubles on someone else?"

Arthur held his head in his hands again, "How long must I endure this?"

Roderich shook his head with a sigh.

"You alone, can make a difference in one student's life. Just by reaching out to them and saying hello, you could change their mind for one day."

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"How many people do we gotta say hi to?" Alfred whispered to Matthew, who just looked at him in silence.

"You can prevent acts of suicide just by keeping your eyes open and staying alert to your surroundings. Report any suspicious activity of another student to a teacher. If you see someone by themselves in the hall, say hello when you pass by. Don't just ignore them. Making them feel like they don't exist is the worst thing you can do to a person."

"Preaching to the choir, dude." Alfred nodded, for reasons unknown to him, Matthew let out a long sigh.

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Arthur stretched his arms up as they were leaving the auditorium, "That damn presentation…"

"It lasted for three hours! Three! We could have been in class that entire time! What a waste!" Roderich snapped, stalking past him, "That was the worst time of my life!"

Arthur followed along behind him in silence, listening to the words echo in his head over and over. _'Suicide rate has gone up…classmates suffer in silence…'_ Arthur shook his head fiercely. _'I am not depressed. That's just stupid.'_ Arthur felt as if something heavy was falling over him and sighed as Roderich continued cursing.

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><p>.<p>

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I inadvertently put Roderich in this one, when he's also going to be in Gilbert's companion fanfiction, so sorry for those of you who are reading this one and that one, it's going to kinda double up on your Roderich intake. XD Actually, to the few of you reading Matthew's companion fanfiction, you're gonna get more Alfred, too. =w=; Sorry. And sorry about the dots, wasn't sure how to make the transition between Arthur and Alfred any easier.


	4. That stupid voice!

So now all the companion fanfics are tied at 3 reviews, except Lovino style which is ahead by one. I find this funny. XD I don't think I'm getting some personalities right, sorry about that if I'm not. But I'm going to assume that some people like it judging by the number of alerts I had in my inbox this morning.

Moving on:

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><p>By now it was lunchtime, and Arthur's mood had certainly not improved. He just sat by himself up on the school roof, watching the clouds drift by. Arthur sighed. The day seemed to be dragging on, and only getting a few hours sleep was not helping. It wasn't even worth it. And worse yet, since the class was skipped, that meant Alfred would probably be there tonight, too. Not that he minded…it's just…sleeeeeep. Arthur rolled over on his side and glanced out blankly at the horizon. He could feel sleep was falling over him already.<p>

_Well what does a power nap matter? It's not like I'm going to sleep through the whole damn day._

Arthur closed his eyes and relaxed, feeling as if a sense of calm had come over him. If only he could shut his mind up. All he could think about was that damned assembly this morning. That and the way it seemed a lot of students were reacting to it. They thought it was _funny_. How was something like that funny? Arthur rolled onto his back again and stared up at the clouds once more. It wasn't funny. It was…

_Depressing._

Well obviously it was depressing. It was meant to be, wasn't it? Arthur shook his head and tried to ignore the small voice in his head. It was meant to open eyes.

_Did a fine job of that. That's why everyone is laughing._

Arthur groaned and covered his eyes with an arm, "This is bloody ridiculous."

_Laughing._

He remembered Roderich scoffing at the waste of time that assembly was, he had heard a loud complaint from somewhere behind them saying that no one was going to off themselves…and there was most definitely agreements among the students around whoever it had been.

_Well obviously he has never had a problem in his life. Must be nice._

Arthur sighed again. How on earth could he even go to class like this? He couldn't even get up the motivation to move off the roof. Maybe he could just sleep through one class and no one would notice he wasn't there.

_Or no one would care._

There goes that bloody damned voice again. Arthur shook his head. Someone would notice, and someone would care. Alfred was in that next class.

_So skip it and find out._

"I feel like I'm making a bet I know I'm going to lose." Arthur sighed heavily, sitting up and hugging his knees to his chest. He rested his head on his knees and closed his eyes.

Now his thoughts went to Alfred. Of course. Why now? The always cheerful, ever optimistic, constantly capturing someone's heart, stupid self-proclaimed hero. And Arthur just had to go and develop a crush on the guy. Sure. Fall for someone who has almost the entire female student body chasing after him. That was smart.

_Fall for someone who won't look in your direction unless he needs help._

Well yes there was that.

_Fall for someone who doesn't even say hello to you in the hallway._

And that.

_Fall for someone who makes fun of you._

Okay. This was not helping his mood at all. Damn that subconscious voice!

Arthur opened his eyes and stared off into to the clouds once more. _Stupid Alfred._ He heard the door to the roof open but didn't bother getting up, or looking up for that matter.

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><p>This one was much shorter than the others, but he was just having conversation with himself. w So there's not really a lot of filler with other people in here. So leave me a review? Ilu if you do!<p> 


	5. This is a NIGHTMARE

You guys are great. I got more reviews this time around! Still a lot of ninja subscribers but hey, oh well. So awkward moment for me. By the way! This chapter isn't going to be in Arthur's POV, this one is an Alfred-chapter. You'll find out why shortly. Sorry in advance. Also, timeskip to next day.

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><p>.<p>

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Alfred stood in the schoolyard, barely listening to whichever girl this was talking to him. He was worried about his brother. For some reason, Mattie wasn't home this morning. He always waited for him before. Then again, his parents were home either. Coincidence? Hmmm…and worse yet, he hadn't even seen Arthur arrive to school yet. Where was that guy anyway? It wasn't like him to be so late!

He looked up, realizing he was being addressed by someone different. Oh. Matthew's friend. Friend, right?

"Hey. Where's your brother at?" Cruz probably meant it as an innocent question but geez it came across as an accusation.

Alfred tilted his head slightly, he knew he probably looked really out of it, "I have no clue. He wasn't home this morning when I got up, I figured he had come to school already."

Now he was being stared at. What was this guy even thinking? "What time did you get up?"

"Uh…maybe around 7 or so?" Alfred laughed nervously, "Totally not sure on the time though, dude. I must have turned my alarm clock off during the night!" He totally looks like he's going to punch me!

To his surprise, Cruz walked away instead. Wow. Matthew sure had an effect on people. Alfred shook his head. Maybe Matthew and Arthur were inside already. He hurried up, going into the building shortly after Cruz. He didn't even make it to his locker when he heard a voice come over the paging system.

"_Attention all sophomore students. Please report to the auditorium at this time. This is a mandatory assembly. All sophomore students, report to the auditorium immediately."_

Oh great. Now what? Alfred sighed but obediently headed towards the auditorium. He really didn't want to sit through another depressing lecture. But he was hoping to see Arthur and Matthew, so…oh. The principal.

"Alfred can I speak to you for a minute?"

_Not good. Not good, at all._

Alfred followed him into a room near the auditorium, "What's up?" He forced the usual smile onto his face, even though he was filled with a large sense of foreboding.

"I talked to your parents already, they're going to be in the auditorium, but your brother isn't here."

Alfred just stared at him, "What do you mean he isn't here? He wasn't at home this morning, where else would he be?"

"I got a call from the hospital this morning saying he was brought in. They tried, Alfred."

Oh. That's just great. He was being told by the principal that his twin brother was dead. His own parents couldn't even tell him. How nice. Alfred just stared at him, no smile on his face at all.

The principal clearly wasn't sure what to say now, and just stared at him right back.

"And my parents couldn't tell me this…why?" Alfred continued staring at him.

"They're a bit broken up about it."

Oh right. Sure they are. They lost a son overnight and couldn't be bothered to tell the other one. Nothing wrong with that. Who the heck doesn't tell their child that their sibling isn't coming home anymore? That's just messed up! Alfred just turned and walked out of the room instead of saying anything else. He walked down the hall, ignoring everyone around him and sat in the first empty seat he found in the darkening auditorium. He could see Cruz further down the rows. _Oh shoot. This is going to be about Mattie, isn't it? Crap. I don't see a way I can talk to him…_ Alfred couldn't see from where he was at if there was an empty seat next to Cruz. _Damn it._

The principal walked in a minute later. He crossed the stage and tapped the microphone. Alfred sunk in his seat a bit as he watched him begin his speech-or-whatever-you-would-call-this: "Good morning, students… and parents. This is probably going to be a wake-up call for many of you." Alfred let his gaze wander. He knew he should be feeling broken up at the moment but right now he wasn't feeling much of anything. Like an emotionless state of mind he couldn't get out of.

"Yesterday morning, there was an assembly for every grade in this school. This assembly was about teenage depression and suicide. Parents, you may or may not have heard about this from your child. This grade, that is sitting in front of me now, did not handle it very well. Many of you thought it was one big joke."

Alfred looked back at the stage. This was just a sick joke right? His brother wasn't really dead? And why would the principal be bringing up that assembly anyway? Not unless. . .oh. Well. That makes the feeling even worse.

"Many of you, didn't take what that speaker said to heart. You didn't think about the classmates around you that might react badly to it. Unfortunately, there were several of you who did." And the speech continued.

Alfred noted that the audience suddenly grew very quiet. It was the kind of quiet you could cough and everyone would turn to look right at you. If this were a funnier moment or day for that matter, he would have been wishing for an airhorn or something.

"Yesterday, that guest speaker we had, told you to look around you, and asked you to think about that one person that may have been sitting near you. What you would think, if that person never came back to this school again."

Alfred just nodded his head slightly, now well aware where this lecture was going. As if he didn't feel bad enough already, just make it worse. What the heck do I care?

"Now I am telling you to look around you. Look at everyone that is sitting around you. Do you notice anything wrong?"

Alfred noticed Cruz look in his direction, but didn't have the motivation to move up from his seat at all to go talk to the male. Not only that, but he would probably be stopped by a teacher anyway. Why would Mattie even do something like that? Does he not even realize how broken up his family and best friend would be? Seriously?

"This morning I received a phone call. It was not a pleasant phone call. It was one that not one person in this room would ever hope to receive in their entire lifetime. It was a phone call that cut short four of your classmates' lives."

_Wait. He just said four. Four? There were three others like Matthew?_

"And now…with the acceptance I have received from their parents, I would like you all to pay respect to the classmates that you couldn't while they were alive. Each of these students, wrote a note that was found with them, that said why they did what they did. I have the approval to read these notes and I fully intend to."

_Acceptance from parents. Oh great. My parents felt like giving acceptance to the principal to read whatever final letter Mattie wrote, but they couldn't tell me that he was gone. That's just peachy._

The principal pulled some papers out from the podium he was standing at and tapped them on the top of it. "The first letter reads as follows…"

As he was reading, a screen projector brought up a picture, one that Alfred knew unfortunately all too well, on the black curtain. And now he was really starting to feel bad. And sick.

"My name is Arthur Kirkland. I am full well aware that by the time that someone reads this, I will no longer be here. I hear people all the time criticizing those of who live in depression saying 'we don't know how much we have to live for'. Maybe we don't know that, and maybe it's because we don't know it that we make such a drastic decision. My life was no hardship for me to survive through, and just because I had a certain person make fun of me almost every day wasn't the main reason for me to go through with this. It wasn't because of my family, who I love so much. It was because of what I went through every day at this school. Every day I see the same person smiling at some other person. Every day I try my best to focus on something else other than that one person. And every day I fail. Every day I felt myself fall deeper into the depression that I could not get out of. I refuse to be a hardship for my family or my friends. I will not let myself drag them down with me. I will leave this world and know that they will move on, and will be happy."

Alfred felt as if he had been in a cold shower for the last half hour. Everything felt reeeeeally cold. Arthur knew that he liked him right? Arthur was totally awesome. He loved the guy. Sure the Englishman could learn a thing or two about lightening up a bit, there always seemed to be a permanent scowl on the guy's face, but…to go that far? What the heck? What kind of day was this? It felt like a nightmare!

"End of letter." The principal said quietly.

Alfred sunk in his seat a little more. This day was just going to get worse and worse.

"My name is Lovino Vargas."

Alfred heard someone cry out from somewhere rather close to him, but couldn't tell who it was from his current sitting position, nor did he have enough energy to move up in his seat to look. _I feel for you dude. Whoever you were._

"I know that people took that assembly as a joke. But it really wasn't one. It wasn't even something to be laughed at. I don't know how people could laugh at that in the first place! But they did. That was all I heard today. Was laughter. That assembly was meant to wake us up. And it did to a few of us. And that few of us were the ones that everyone else was supposed to be watching for. What are we supposed to do? We were being laughed at and made fun of. Every day. This isn't something I can come to school for. This isn't worth living my life for. Not to be made fun of for something I can't control. I'm out of here. Maybe I can watch all of you and see if you all actually grow up or not. I hear adults saying they have a ray of sunshine in their lives, there was nothing but blue skies their entire life. I see a lot of gray clouds…and no sun. I don't get what the saying is supposed to mean exactly but…I'm pretty sure that life isn't supposed to have such a depressing outlook to it. I refuse to keep waking myself up every day to know that when I get to school, I will be laughed at for suffering from depression. They may not know who specifically we are, but we know. And it still hurts."

Alfred closed his eyes and listened to the words echo in his head. _It still hurts. It's no picnic for the rest of us now either. Yeah I'm really sorry I made those comments yesterday, but I never laughed at it! Make us feel lower than dirt, why don't you. As if we don't feel low enough already._ _Oh my word._

"End of letter." The principal said quietly. Alfred glanced up at the two pictures on the curtain. His gaze was locked on Arthur's picture. _This is so messed up!_

"My name is Matthew Williams."

_Oh my word. I'm out of here. I don't give a damn what the teachers say._ Alfred got up abruptly and left the row he was sitting in. He quickly fled to the back of the auditorium and stood next to a door. Leaning up against the wall, he held his head in his hands, staring through his fingers at the picture that had come up. His brother wasn't smiling. Surprise.

"I'm sure whoever is reading this note probably has no idea who I even am. Because every day when I come to school, I don't exist. My classmates don't see me, if they hear my name being called during roll call; they think I'm a transfer student. My brother is probably the most popular athlete here, but nobody remembers his twin brother. Nobody cares."

_I knew you were there. But every time I tried to show you I cared, you pushed me away!_ Those tears were definitely going to come soon. Alfred glanced down the aisle and noticed Cruz's posture had changed a lot. He almost looked as if he was going to be sick. Not that Alfred blamed him.

"That assembly we had…I actually thought it was rather pointless. The only way people are going to learn is if they want to learn. If they have a reason to benefit from the experience, they will learn from it. Nobody had any reason to listen or pay attention to that speaker, so why would they? They'd rather laugh at it. I don't know what to do anymore. I tried to speak up more, tried to make friends…but I wound up getting hurt each time. So I'm going to do the rest of the world a favor, and leave it. I was an invisible person while I was alive, I might as well be a ghost and not exist at all. I'm sick of trying." The principal looked up once more, "End of letter."

Alfred sunk down along the wall and just sat on the floor, staring at the stage. He could still see it from where he was sitting. There was no way he was going back to his seat after that. No motivation and no energy.

"The last letter I have, is not a suicide letter. It is one that one of your classmates wrote because he was dying of an illness. And has been for the past year. He passed away overnight, but wanted his mother to give this letter for his classmates to hear."

Alfred tilted his head slightly. _One almost natural death? At least it wasn't by suicide._

"So, as written, unfortunately…I knew he hated me. Uhm…" The principal held the letter out at arm's length attempting to squint to read the handwriting.

Alfred remembered what someone had said to him a couple days ago and felt a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth. This was going to be someone he knew as well. His gaze drifted to the curtain where the picture of Gilbert now showed next to his brother's picture.

"To my awesome friends and not so awesome classmates. This is Gilbert in case you couldn't tell. Yeah so I won't be coming to that stupid school anymore, permanent vacation for me! So I'm sure Mr. Principal already told you that I was sick for the past year, yada yada. Yeah I was. Nobody noticed, thankfully. I swear if one more person asked if I was sick I was going to punch them in the face. But hey, no depressing comments here. I had an awesome life, thanks to my friends who kept me laughing, and even though I have a school record a mile long, I'm not holding any grudges to any completely unawesome teachers who couldn't laugh a little. There are some serious stiffs around here! Anyway, I'm outta here. I'll see you all on the other side. My awesome self is going to sleep now, and I already know I'm not going to wake up. I'm so damn tired it's not even funny. So this is the awesome me, saying goodbye to you all. Later~!" The principal shook his head, "End of letter."

Alfred couldn't help but smile at Gilbert's letter. It sort of lightened the mood somehow. Not only that, but he had made the principal read something that was almost impossible for him to say. That was Gilbert, all right.

"Your four classmates are gone from this world. And have left behind words for you to react on yourselves. This is your life to live. No one can make decisions for you. You react how you want to…but have the common decency to realize there are people around you who can be hurt by what you said." The principal stepped back from the podium and looked up at the four pictures.

Alfred looked up at the four photos. _All of them are gone? In one night?_

"You lost four classmates in one night. For that reason, school will be dismissed for the sophomore class for the duration of the day. There will however, be memorials in the lobby for each student. Feel free to sign your names and write a message if you want to." The principal walked off the stage.

Alfred ducked out of the auditorium, finding enough energy to move to the lobby where memorials had been set up. He scribbled a note on Matthew's first, then Arthur's, and lastly: Gilbert's. He glanced up at Lovino's picture. He hadn't really known the guy. But he knew Lovino had a brother. Alfred signed a note on Lovino's as well before turning and heading out the doors. He didn't bother waiting for his parents. They could come home whenever they felt like it.

_**Arthur- dude you need to lighten up, and smile a bit more. That scowl is probably permanently imprinted on your face now. Love you anyway. –Resident Hero**_

_**Lovino- I know we never spoke, but I know you had a brother. And I know you're with mine now. So I'll be friends with yours if you be friends with mine, deal?**_

_**Matthew- You suck. When I get over there, I swear I will hit you so many times over the head. Every time I tried to show you I cared, you pushed me away! How many different ways do I have to show you for you to get it through your head? I'm gonna miss my little brother!**_

_**Gilbert- Dude you really were awesome. That letter really lightened the mood there, thanks. I wonder if you knew about the others? Well I guess you do now, huh? I hope you hit them all over the head. That was just like you to make the principal read something like that!**_

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><p>*cough* So yeah. There it is. *hides* Leave me a review? A nice review. Please. No flames about me killing off people. These were hard to write.<p> 


	6. Pointless Mission For Change

I really thought more people would have guessed what was happening than just the one who did. XD Technically there were two, but I think the other one was more of a guess than anything else. Either way, I love my reviewers, and my flamers: Pssssh. Whatever. XD If you don't like, then don't read.

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_Arthur sighed heavily. He still wasn't quite sure how he had been dragged the whole way down from the roof to the office. It wasn't like he was going to attempt anything while he was up there. He always sat up on the roof at lunch time. What was the big deal all of a sudden?_

"_Mr. Kirkland…you are one of two on the student council, I'm sure you noticed the request for the Mission for Change requiring four students?"_

_Arthur looked up at the principal, "Yes, sir." He sighed heavily. Was he going to get a lecture now?_

"_You are one of the four students selected." The principal said flatly._

"_I'm what?" Arthur just stared at the principal in shock, "What am I even being chosen for? I know it's for that mission thing but the paper didn't say what it was about."_

"_The mission for change requests four students to be removed from the school in order for their classmates to have a better understanding what goes on when a suicide is committed." The principal motioned to two completed forms that were on the desk._

"_So you have two of four already?" Arthur asked, "Wait, does this mean that everyone thinks we committed suicide? Even my brothers?"_

"_Your family will know you are alive. Your classmates here at school will think you're…deceased." The principal added._

"_Well, at least __they_ _won't panic." Arthur looked at the form that was now sitting in front of him._

"_You know you failed your emotional aptitude test, correct?"_

"_I had a vague feeling that I had failed it." Arthur commented._

"_You and the other three students will be attending emotional therapy sessions while you are out to try and improve your behavior before it worsens." The principal commented._

"_Oh, of course. How long are we going to be out of school anyway?" Arthur tapped the pen nonchalantly on the desk._

"_As long as necessary to promote change." The principal sighed._

"_That's specific." Arthur sighed heavily. Roderich would be having a fit right now if he were in this position._

"_Yes, well. The range varies." The principal sighed, "Though all schools participating in this so far have since found their emotional scores rating much higher."_

"_That's a plus. I suppose." Arthur ran a hand through his hair, "Well then. Out of curiosity, what other students are being elected for this?"_

"_Gilbert Beilschmidt, Lovino Vargas, and Matthew Williams." The principal responded._

"…_I can see some family members are going to have fits." Arthur sighed._

"_Their families will know they're alive. Parents anyway, it's up to the parents to tell the siblings." The principal added as an afterthought._

"_I can see some family members are going to have fits." Arthur repeated, but he signed the form anyway._

_The principal heaved a huge sigh, "This is possible, but we'll step in if necessary to talk to any family member who may need guidance."_

"_That's a comforting thought." Arthur laid the pen down._

"_I also need you to write a letter which will be read to your classmates. Act as though these are the last of your words they'll ever have." The principal pushed open a blank piece of notebook paper._

"_. . . . . .sure. How am I supposed to do that?" Arthur hesitated over the letter. Well it's not like he ever thought about what he would write in a letter like this! He hesitated, but finally started writing. It didn't take as long as he thought it would, and pushed the finished letter over to the principal._

"_You will be leaving school in an ambulance, covered by a white sheet in case any of the students would happen to see you." The principal added._

"_Oh. Lovely. I committed suicide during school." Arthur rolled his eyes._

"_Yes, well, no one ever said the idea was without flaws." The principal laughed before exiting the room, "Just hang tight here for a bit."_

_Arthur leaned back in his chair, half-regretting to opt into the program. "Well…I'm sure the teachers can handle whatever happens as a response to this." He shook his head again before settling to wait for the ambulance he was told he had to ride in. "At least it's not a hearse."_

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><p>Okay, so there's the chapter! I told my reviewers to keep reading, hopefully they did. XD And so the story continues~! Leave me a review? 8D<p> 


	7. Failing my test! and Repetitive slides

Yeah sorry for not updating this one and Canada's last night. I would have, but I was so tired. Actually I'm not even sure if I'm gonna be posting both this one and Canada's today. I'm in a serious cleaning mood right now. :P But, I'm gonna try. So here we go: oh also, both Alfred and Arthur in this one.

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Alfred stretched his arms above his head. It so completely not cool that he ended up staying awake all night to study for that test that got pushed back to today. And now that the test paper was in front of him, of course his mind had to go blank. Alfred tapped his pencil in annoyance on the desk. The answers were in his brain somewhere…they were just…hiding. Yeah that was it. His gaze drifted across to the empty desk that Gilbert would usually be sitting in and sighed. Three classes he had with Gilbert, and now all of them would be reaaaally quiet.

'_I gotta focus on this.'_ Alfred shook his head and glared at the question he had been on for the last ten minutes. The answer just was not coming at all. Damn it. Make-up test time.

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Arthur stared at the slides, mostly in disbelief. How could someone even learn from these? Sure they were meant to help, but they had some logical flaws with the wording. Take the one they were just listening to now for example. Supposedly if they needed to talk to someone they were to just walk up to a friend of theirs and use them as a sounding board, well that's just bloody perfect, except any friends of theirs thought they were DEAD. So…we're just supposed to walk back in there and talk to them as if nothing ever happened? Oh sure. That'll go over like a bloody balloon filled with bricks!

He leaned back in his chair and tried to focus once more. There were some good points in the slides. Like talking to teachers if need be, but that was pretty much common sense. And only applied if you wanted the teachers to automatically report anything that they deemed "worthy of reporting" to guidance or the principal. Which usually meant a phone call to the parents. Arthur sighed. These slides really weren't helpful at all.

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Alfred held his head in both hands, scowling at the test paper in front of him. He managed to get two more questions answered, but that still left him stuck at yet another one. He knew this subject! He knew it without a doubt. But he absolutely could NOT concentrate. Can't he have a few days off school? His brother died for crying out loud, and he was back in school the next day. This was NOT fair. Alfred hit his head on the desk with an aggravated sigh. He knew a couple heads turned back to look at him out of curiosity and confusion, but realized who it was and quickly turned back around again.

Alfred noticed Kiku looking at him in concern and just glared at him, daring the quiet Japanese boy to say something. Alfred picked up the pencil from where it had fallen to on the floor and held it over the test paper once more, but no answer came to mind. He was definitely going to fail this one.

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Arthur tilted his head slightly. He could hear whispers from Gilbert, who was sitting diagonal behind him, right behind Lovino, but attempted to ignore the conversation, whatever it was about. Judging by Lovino's reaction, it was meant as a distraction and served its purpose. Oh well. The slides were mostly repetitive anyhow. Arthur turned slightly in his seat to listen to what Gilbert was saying. He's quoting the slides. Word for word. How does he memorize that fast?

He blinked a bit when Gilbert commented that he didn't have anything to do, and sighed. "Try listening."

"I am. Didn't you hear my awesome quote?" There was that smirk that Gilbert was well known for when he was harassing someone.

"Obviously not. I was listening to the slide." Arthur sighed, and shook his head in annoyance. Apparently he was the only one out of the four of them that was paying attention. He knew by the soft sigh behind him that Matthew had fallen asleep at one point.

"Yeah well, you let me know if you learn anything from this." Arthur twitched as Gilbert waved a hand carelessly. Clearly the albino wasn't even going to make an attempt. Oh well. What did it matter really? They were only here for as long as necessary, right? Might as well have some fun with it. Arthur smiled slightly. And he had people to have fun with! For once.

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Alfred hummed as he walked down to guidance. The teacher had practically thrown him out of the classroom after Alfred voiced his opinion on the test. Well, throwing a pencil up against a markerboard and screaming: "I GIVE UP ON THIS STUPID TEST!" might have had something to do with it. Oh well.

Alfred pushed open the door to the guidance office and found Antonio already sitting there. "Duuuude…" Alfred sat down in the chair next to Antonio, "Did you just get sent down here, too?"

"Yeah." Antonio sighed. He half wondered if Antonio got thrown out of the room.

"Stupid teacher. I can't even be attentive without having someone be concerned about me." Alfred slumped in the chair. He was only stretching the truth slightly. It's not like Antonio needed to know that he just caused a major distraction while taking a test, "I need Gilbert. Seriously. We need some serious laughter."

"Yeah." Antonio's voice was quiet, Alfred could barely hear him at all, "I can't believe that guy isn't here…"

"I KNOW! What the heck? How does someone that full of life…" Alfred's voice trailed off and he hit his head up against the wall. He stared up at the ceiling but didn't finish his sentence. How did they lose four friends all at once? That was just…impossible. Wasn't it?

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><p>Well I got this one done at least. I don't think I'm going to post Matthew's until tomorrow though, sorry!<p> 


	8. Lunchtime

Okay so there was like a 2 day delay in between chapter updates this time, sorry. Having some issues and I went on a cleaning spree which didn't help. Anyway, moving on~ split chapter again

So, oh I forgot to answer this a while back *answering it here, since this is the story the review was submitted with*:

Vodkas sister: since I can't submit a response to you via the messaging system; Gilbert said he was dying of sickness because he thought suicide was "completely unawesome", so he opted for the only other choice he had.

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Alfred peered impatiently over the heads in front of him that were also in the cafeteria line. Seriously. Grab the food and keep moving! He needed to eat soon if he was ever going to have enough energy to make it through the day. Glancing around him, he noticed Antonio further back, apparently still looking at the menus. There were like four things to choose from. How hard was it to make a simple decision? That and they were serving burgers for lunch, and NO WAY was Alfred missing that. Alfred sighed in relief when the line started moving again. Hopefully they didn't run out before he got there.

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Arthur sat at a table in the lunchroom and looked around him at the surroundings. Is this supposed to look like a school cafeteria? They failed miserably. Looks more like a…

"Prison cafeteria." Gilbert sat down across from him, voicing Arthur's thoughts out loud.

Arthur looked at him blankly, "What?"

"It looks like a freaking cafeteria that belongs in a prison." Gilbert said flatly, "Seriously. Where's the color in here?" Gilbert looked around blankly.

"It is rather dull." Arthur said softly, looking around again, "Then again, I suppose it's not that much different from ours, just minus all the colorful posters."

"Meh." Gilbert looked at the tray he had been given, "Think this is edible?"

"…" Arthur looked down at his own tray. He had been trying to figure that out for some time now. He wasn't even quite sure what it was…or what it was supposed to be.

"This is like hospital food right?" Lovino had sat down next to Gilbert, "Doesn't look or taste like what it's supposed to."

"Have you tried it yet?" Arthur asked, noticing, with some amusement, that Gilbert had frozen while about to take a bite from his fork.

"No. Just a thought." Lovino commented, waving a hand in the air.

Arthur looked over to where he was waving and saw Matthew coming over, "The gang's all here…"

"Yeah. What part of the gang _is_ here." Gilbert grumbled.

Arthur looked over, "How was it?"

"How was what?" Gilbert asked. Did he not eat it?

Arthur looked down at Gilbert's fork and saw it was speared in the…whatever meat that was on the tray. Whatever had been on the fork wasn't there now. Well if he didn't eat it, where did it go? His napkin is gone, too…

Arthur shrugged and took a spoonful of…mashed potatoes? And munched for a moment before making a face and gagging on it. He supposed it was supposed to be mashed potatoes, but they certainly didn't taste like they were EVER potatoes at any point in their whatever-this-is-made-of's lifespan.

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Alfred plopped down next to Antonio and happily started munching on his first burger, "So, at least lunch is still good."

"Yeah. About the only thing to look forward to. And I'm not even sure I was looking forward to this." Antonio sighed, stirring his soup around with his spoon, "Seriously…I just want to go sit in a corner somewhere and hide."

"Uh-huh." Alfred took another big bite and watched the Spaniard across from him. Wasn't he gonna eat at all? "You'll probably feel better if you actually eat…you know…instead of stirring and making a whirlpool?"

Antonio reddened and shook his head, "I was just waiting for it to cool off!"

"Sure whatever dude." Alfred continued eating. He watched as Antonio seemed to be looking around for someone. Lovino's brother maybe.

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"So how was it?" Gilbert was smirking.

"Gah…what was that?" Arthur unscrewed the bottle cap from his drink and inspected the label, "And what is this?"

"Fruit juice?" Matthew suggested quietly.

"No." Lovino rejected the idea.

"No?" Arthur looked over at him and noticed Lovino's bottle was sitting on the tray, cap off.

"Definitely not a fruit." Lovino scowled and was about to take a bite of the…meat when Gilbert stopped him.

"I wouldn't eat that if I were you." Gilbert said, quite calmly.

Lovino froze and looked at him, "Why?"

"Just don't." Gilbert repeated.

"Class will not resume until all trays are empty!"

Arthur, Matthew, Gilbert, and Lovino all looked at the teacher in horror. Judging by the reactions of the other teenagers in the room, they weren't the only ones not impressed by the food.

Arthur took a deep breath, "Okay…"

"No way." Gilbert said flatly.

Arthur looked at his tray. Something that was supposed to resemble potatoes, some weird drink, and some type of meat, that probably was never meat to begin with. No problem. Drink to wash it down, and eat it fast. Hopefully the taste buds won't even catch a glimpse of it.

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Alfred finished off his third burger while Antonio still sipped his soup. "Dude. Lunch will be over soon."

"Huh?" Antonio snapped out of his reverie and looked at Alfred, startled. "Crap." He dropped his spoon and proceeded to drink out of the bowl instead, hastily gulping it down.

"I told you that you should've started eating sooner!" Alfred laughed, gulping down his soda.

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Arthur cut the meat into squares. Okay, six chewable squares. One lump of potato-substitute each. I can do this. He looked up and saw Matthew was forcing himself to eat a bite of the potatoes. Gilbert was just looking at his tray with an expression of you-have-got-to-be-fucking-kidding-me, and Lovino was just…apparently trying to decide if he could throw the food out in the trash can behind him without being noticed. Arthur shook his head and took a deep breath. Okay. Alfred can eat this fast, so can I. He stabbed the first piece and shoveled the potatoes in.

I have never eaten this fast in my _life._ Roderich would be appalled. The idea worked, mostly. The tray was empty of food at least. Arthur forced himself to swallow and quickly gulped down his drink to wash it down before gagging after he was done.

Gilbert was gaping at him, "How the hell did you just do that?"

Arthur coughed repeatedly, "Okay. I'm done." He pushed his empty tray away from him, "No more for me, thanks."

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><p>Yay~ not sure what type of food they would serve in that place, but the food quality should match the classroom quality, right? 8D Leave me a review~<p> 


	9. Not such a bad room

So…sorry about lack of updates the last three days. First day I was distracted by finding a manga I've been looking for. So of course I read it in its entirety. XD Yesterday I was feeling understimulated *not enough sleep*, and today (Friday), fanfiction wouldn't let me sign in. Kept saying the connection timed out. So. No clue when this update is going to come up.

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Alfred stretched his arms above his head. At least the class right after lunch was study hall. He could relax! Finally! And hopefully not get sent to the guidance office. Again. Alfred slouched across his desk. From where he was sitting he could see Antonio at the front of the room. Apparently his friend had fallen asleep. Napping sounded like a good option…but…he really should study for that make-up test. Crap. And no Arthur to help him study.

Alfred hit his head against his desk. This was not going to go well. Going to fail that test for sure. Alfred yanked out the textbook from the pile under his desk and glared at the cover. Why do heroes even have to study?

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Arthur sat on the top of a bunk bed, his legs swinging over the side. "Well. Apparently there is no class after lunch for us."

"Works for me. At least if we get sick from eating, it won't be in the middle of class." Lovino responded. He was bunking below Gilbert. The albino had loudly claimed he wanted a bed on the top, for whatever reason he had.

Arthur winced at the mention of the food. He shook his head, about to make a comment when Matthew spoke up beneath him.

"How did the teachers approach you all?" His voice was really quiet. Not at all like Alfred.

"A teacher practically dragged me off the roof and down to the office. Now that I think about it, he might have said the principal wanted to talk to me, but I was too busy protesting the whole way." Arthur grumbled. Come to think of it…that posed a couple of questions in Arthur's mind.

"I was blackmailed." Lovino's response sounded rather bitter. "Stupid teacher said he'd report the failed emotional test or whatever to my parents. And I would get sent here anyway."

Gilbert was laughing, apparently at Lovino's response. "I was approached normally, sorry. Gets me out of that boring school so what the heck do I care? I'll die an early death, big deal."

"Eh…I was blackmailed too I suppose. If I didn't come they were going to report to my parents anyhow, so might as well come and save whatever dignity I had left." Matthew let out a sigh.

"Dignity? That sounds like something that will be non-existent the instant we go back into school." Lovino scoffed.

"How are they planning on doing that?" Arthur blinked.

"Dunno. We just show up and go TA-DA." Gilbert was laughing again, "Oh man, can you see their faces~!" Gilbert continued laughing.

Sad to say, Arthur could see Alfred's face, and it was not amused, "Yeah…Alfred will probably strangle Matthew, if Cruz doesn't first, and if Cruz does, then he's going to strangle me."

"Ehhhhhh~!" Matthew whimpered at the thought.

"…Uh…I'm not really sure how Antonio would react. Or Feli." Lovino leaned over the side of the bed up at Gilbert, "What about you?"

"Hmmm…Antonio would probably hit us both over the head, scream something about us scaring the heck out of him, and then we would probably both get a hug hard enough to choke any remaining air out." Gilbert looked down the side at Lovino.

"And my stupid brother will be pitching a fit." Lovino had a good point. And speaking of that…what were Arthur's brothers going to say anyway? Crap. Hopefully his mom and dad had the sense to tell them at least. Hopefully.

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><p>Short-ish chapter, sorry. Review anyway? XD<p> 


	10. Emergency rooms are fun! and Sick

Sorry about the lack of updates the last couple days, I let myself get distracted. = w = Hopefully I can make this one a little longer to make up for the last chapter and the last couple days. XD No clue though.

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Arthur listened to the teacher closely. Most of what he was saying made logical sense. Even if it was rather obvious.

"There are times when I'm sure many of you may feel like no one understands you." Well didn't everyone feel that way at one point in time or another?

"But if that feeling comes over you, just find a friend that you trust you can talk to."

…the only one I really talk to is Roderich. It wouldn't do any good after this to talk to Gilbert, Lovino, or Matthew. They're probably thinking the same things I am! Arthur glanced at Lovino and noticed he seemed to be rolling his eyes in exasperation. Arthur looked back forward in confusion. This was really not making sense.

"Even if it's a family member you're having problems with, talking it over with someone else will help you look at the situation in a new light!"

There was a problem with a certain little brother almost every day, but his parents usually took care of that. Arthur shook his head with a sigh. That was one good thing about being here. He didn't have to deal with him.

"If you lose your nerve to talk to the person you're having the problems with, ask your friend to talk to the person for you!"

Roderich would never talk to someone for me. He'd tell me to talk to the person myself. Arthur slumped down the wall slightly. Clearly this was not helping at all. How is this supposed to help? The only friend I have at school is someone who thinks that if you have a problem you should be the one to solve it! I should probably find another person I can talk to then…hm. Who else is there?

Arthur tuned the teacher out for the moment. Well I can rule out Gilbert, Lovino, and Matthew, they're going to be having these moments themselves, I'm sure. I don't want to bother them with it. Alfred is usually the problem, so it's not like I can talk to him. If he isn't the problem, then he's the source of it. Why did I even have to _think_ about him? Arthur buried his face in his hands. This class was not helping at all.

.

.

Alfred only paid attention to the tv in front of him that was currently blasting music from the video game he was playing. He was running through the area on auto pilot, trying to ignore the nagging feeling at the back of his mind that he should have been paying better attention to how his brother had been behaving. And as much as he bothered Arthur, shouldn't he have noticed that there was a problem with him as well? _'Man, I really am stuck in my own world!'_ Alfred shook his head. But there was definitely a voice in the back of his head.

_Some hero. Can't even protect his twin brother or his friend._

Alfred flung the game controller against the wall. I am totally a hero!

_More like a villain._

Okay that hurt. Stupid subconscious voice. Alfred slammed the video game system off and threw himself onto his bed. Good thing his parents weren't home. Alfred cursed his frustrations into the pillow he was hugging tightly and rolled onto his side to glare at the wall. Even heroes screwed up sometimes.

_Yeah but real heroes can make up for it. It's a little late for you._

What happened to never too late?

_Never too late is non-existent now, isn't it? You can't talk to Matthew or Arthur. They're gone._

Alfred felt tears stinging the corners of his eyes. This stupid voice really wasn't helping. Okay so he had screwed up a bit in not noticing there was a problem, but they must have done a good job hiding it!

_Or you were too busy focused on your perfect life that you didn't notice how crappy their lives were._

"OH SHUT UP ALREADY!" Alfred slammed his fist into the wall. He felt the wall break and didn't move his fist, even though he knew he had made a pretty good indent into the wall.

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Arthur looked at the teacher again. Clearly his train of thought was getting him nowhere. He couldn't even focus on what the teacher was saying. It didn't help that his stomach was rejecting whatever he had eaten for lunch.

"Pardon me." Arthur raised his hand. It couldn't hurt to try, right?

"Yes?" The teacher perked up slightly.

"Sorry, my stomach is really upset right now, is there a nurse station or something here?" Arthur felt his face grow hot slightly with the number of students looking back at him.

"Oh! Yes, but someone should go with you to make sure you're alright, Lovino is it? Can you accompany Mr. Arthur to the nurse station?"

"Sure." Lovino smiled. He looked entirely too happy to get out of this class.

"It's just down the hall on the left, third door." The teacher directed them as they both left the classroom.

"Thank you." Arthur forced a smile before shutting the door.

"Finally!" Lovino whispered quietly, "I couldn't take one more minute of that!"

Arthur chuckled a bit and headed in the direction they were directed towards, "Down this way right?"

"Yeah." Lovino followed along, "So are we back in kindergarten with needing a buddy system?"

Arthur chuckled again.

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Alfred sat in the hospital waiting room with his fist wrapped up in bandages. He continued grinning at Antonio who was glaring at him.

"Who would punch a wall, seriously?" Antonio grumbled, sitting beside him, "And why did I have to bring you here?"

"Dude I wasn't walking here by myself, and I totally left a dent in that wall." Alfred pouted, "It just got me back that's all."

"Yeah. By breaking your hand. Good luck playing sports like that." Antonio said, looking at it sideways.

"Yeah, totally lucky. I get out of gym class now." Alfred lifted up his bandaged hand, "Works for me."

"Huh?" Antonio stared at him blankly.

"Mattie didn't like gym class." Alfred said flatly. He waved his hand around slightly. I wonder if this is karma?

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><p>I know I didn't end any of the others with the second person, but Alfred I had to. XD Fist VS wall, the wall usually wins. Leave me a review?<p> 


	11. Sleepover! and Suppertime

Yeah so I split up the updates, sorry. Was only focused enough to write Matthew's and Gilbert's. Moving on with Arthur's~:

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><p>.<p>

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Arthur stretched out on the bed that was in the nurse station. This was nice. They got to miss the rest of class and better yet: they were both told to sleep it off. He hadn't thought Lovino was sick, and judging by the sigh that was from the bed next to him, he probably wasn't. Oh well. At least Lovino was spared from that class, right?

"Pssst."

Arthur rolled over to look at Lovino questioningly, "What?"

"When do you think supper is?" Lovino asked. Arthur tilted his head, pondering. It had been quite some time since lunch, and now that he was aware of it, his stomach was growling slightly.

"Hopefully soon." Arthur hugged his pillow and laid his head down on it once more. "Did you sleep at all?"

"Yeah. Don't know for how long though." Arthur smiled at Lovino's response but quickly rolled over once more when he heard the nurse's footsteps returning.

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Alfred bounced up and down on Antonio's bed. No way was this voice going to bother him now! He had Antonio to talk to! He looked at his injured hand and frowned a bit. "This is so going to hurt."

"Well yeah. Broken hands usually do." Antonio commented from the floor. He was sleeping on an air mattress. Alfred tried to offer him the bed, but Antonio had said something about guests sleeping on the bed. Whatever. If that's how things go over here, Alfred wasn't about to complain.

"At least I dented the wall!" Alfred grinned.

"Yeah. I'm sure your parents will love that." Antonio hugged a travel pillow to his chest, "Good luck explaining it."

"The voice in my head was ticking me off." Alfred said flatly. And it _was._

"I'm sure your parents will love hearing that, too." Antonio raised both eyebrows. "Did you talk to your parents at all about Matthew?"

Alfred just stared at Antonio for a minute before laying down and rolling over so his back was facing Antonio, "I'm sleepy! Night!"

"…Goodnight." Alfred listened quietly while Antonio moved around the room to turn off the light. He couldn't resist the laugh as he heard Antonio promptly trip over the air mattress, "Ow."

Alfred grinned and glanced over his shoulder, even though he could only see Antonio's outline: "Dude. I am not taking you to the hospital after the grumbling you gave me."

"Shut up. I don't need the hospital." Antonio grumbled.

Alfred only laughed.

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"What do you two think, are you well enough to go eat supper?" The nurse looked back and forth between Arthur and Lovino.

"I'm fine." Lovino spoke up hastily.

"I'm fine." Arthur smiled at the nurse. The nap worked quite well on his upset stomach, and now he was quite hungry for supper. Hopefully it wouldn't repeat itself.

"Alright then, go ahead. The cafeteria is five doors back in the direction you came, on the right." The nurse pointed down the hallway.

"Yes ma'am." Arthur walked out the door and began walking down the hallway. At least they were able to stay with each other most of the day. Though he half-wondered about the morning classes they would have tomorrow. They hadn't had any today, mainly because it was their first day and they had to be shown to their rooms and settled down in there. By that time, it had been the class before lunch already.

Lovino glanced at the closed doors as they walked by, "I wonder how many different classes they have here?"

"Don't know. They do have an awful lot of classrooms, don't they?" Arthur commented in response. Perhaps we'll be in one of these rooms tomorrow?

Lovino let out a sigh of relief, "Supper!" True, the scent of the food was beginning to come down the hall to where they were at. Finally.

"Let's hope it's more edible than lunch." Arthur commented._ Please._

"Ugh. It better be." Lovino shuddered, "When I get out of here, first thing I'm going to do, is go eat out at a decent restaurant."

"Hear hear." Arthur agreed. That would be nice. Maybe the four of them could eat out somewhere before they went back to school.

Arthur waited patiently in the cafeteria line for the trays to be handed out. It looked like a burger of some kind. Well. A meal for Alfred, or perhaps not. He smiled at the woman and thanked her anyway.

He looked up and saw Gilbert waving to him from the back corner and smiled. Making his way back to where they were sitting, Arthur sat across from Gilbert.

"Well." Arthur shook his head before looking at the tray, "Burger and soup? If you can call it that." He lifted the top bun and raised an eyebrow. There was no way this would even be considered a burger by Alfred's standards.

"Alfred wouldn't approve of it at all." Matthew laughed. Apparently he agreed.

"No he wouldn't. He'd be standing up there raising a fit." Arthur sighed before dropping the bun back on top, "Lovino's coming." The thought of Alfred arguing with the woman handing out trays was almost enough to send him into a fit of laughter, but he suppressed it and began sipping on his soup instead.

"Oh, were you two in the same class?" Matthew blinked in surprise.

"Yes." Arthur looked at him in confusion, "Weren't you two?" He thought they would have been. But then again, these two were really different in personality-types.

"Nope. I was in a class of four, including the idiot teacher." Gilbert took a bite of his burger.

Matthew looked at Gilbert for a moment, "Eh. I was in a normal-sized class."

"What, was my class the only small one? Geeeez." Gilbert shrugged it off. Were they talking about something before I got here?

Arthur looked up for a moment as Lovino sat down on the right-side of him. He went back to his soup however as Matthew began talking to him.

"Hello." Matthew smiled at Lovino.

"Hi." Lovino grumbled. He glared at the burger, "Can't they serve pasta? Or something." Arthur watched as Lovino proceeded to drown his burger in ketchup. Well then. Italians love anything with tomato, it would seem.

"You want my ketchup?" Arthur offered him the packets that had been sitting ignored on his tray.

"Thank you." Lovino sighed and gratefully took the ketchup.

"I swear you're trying it on purpose." Gilbert commented. Arthur looked up in confusion. What was he talking about?

Matthew glared at him, "I am not. Shut up."

"Trying what?" Arthur questioned, curious.

"Nothing." Apparently Matthew had kicked Gilbert underneath the table because the albino looked like he was in pain all of a sudden.

"Ow!" Gilbert winced, "That hurt!"

Arthur raised both eyebrows but went back to eating. "Well. This must be more edible than lunch if you're done already." Arthur commented before taking a bite of his plain burger. Actually, it wasn't all that bad. If he skipped tasting it.

Best to eat the whole meal fast. Arthur quickly ate the burger in five bites. Roderich would definitely be shaking his head at this. This was the second meal now he had done that. Oh well. Arthur began sipping his soup again to get the taste that was left out of his mouth. Mostly bread taste fortunately. The burger probably tasted awful. Or freezer-burnt.

"Ow!" Matthew winced, rubbing the back of his head, "What was that for?" Arthur looked up again in confusion. Maybe he should stop spacing out so much.

"You know what it was for." Gilbert said flatly, finishing his drink. "Going back to our wonderful bedroom, see you two back there." Gilbert waved at Arthur and Lovino before forcibly dragging Matthew out of the lunchroom.

"Well." Lovino commented, "Coming from someone else other than Gilbert, that comment could have been taken completely the wrong way." And _that_ he had to agree with. But Gilbert didn't come off as the romantic-type, so coming from Gilbert, it was as innocent a comment as Gilbert could make. Which didn't say very much.

"No kidding." Arthur continued drinking his soup, "You'd think they would have given us crackers, or something." Crackers would definitely help. It was more of a tomato-ey drink of some sort.

"Oh…they didn't, did they?" Lovino looked around his tray. "What kind of soup is it?"

"Tomato." Arthur commented, still drinking it. He looked over and saw Lovino was gulping down the soup really fast. It's a good thing it wasn't super hot.

Lovino half-glared at Arthur, "What?"

"Nothing." Arthur shook his head and continued sipping the soup. Well if he wanted to drink the soup that fast, he could go right ahead. But it certainly tasted better than the burger, so _he_ was going to enjoy it.

"So do you sit with Alfred at all during lunch?" Lovino asked.

"Sometimes." Arthur commented, "Why?" Only when Alfred has a test to study for, or he doesn't feel like sitting with the other athletes, which isn't very often.

"You eat fast." Lovino said flatly. Arthur almost spat out the soup in shock.

Arthur glared at him, "Only to skip the tasting part of the meal." He most certainly had not learned _that_ from Alfred.

Lovino nodded, but didn't look like he agreed with what Arthur said at all, and took a swallow of the drink they had been given, which he promptly hurled into the trashcan, "Bleah! I'll be thirsty all night before I drink that!" Arthur watched as Lovino leaned over the side of the table and started coughing, "Oh that was awful."

"Would you like some water?" The lady that had handed them the trays offered a bottle of water to Lovino.

"Yes, I would. Thank you." Lovino quickly took the bottle and gulped down the drink, "Much better!"

Arthur frowned at the fruit juice, "How bad is it?" Now he most certainly did _not_ want to try this.

"Very. Slip it with your trash, you can have the rest of the water." Lovino pointed to the trashcan.

Arthur stood up and dropped the fruit juice in first, making sure his tray covered up the full bottle in the trash can before smiling at Lovino, "Back to the room?" Arthur finished off the water and tossed it into the trashcan as well.

"Yeah." Lovino motioned for Arthur to lead the way and followed him out, "Finally, we can sleep!"

"I wonder how early we have to get up tomorrow." Arthur commented, walking out of the cafeteria.

"Oh, I don't even want to think about it. It's only been one day! I want to go home!" Lovino pouted.

Arthur laughed, "As do I." Oh doesn't home sound nice. Comfortable beds…familiar teachers who don't go on and on about the same thing that no one wants to listen to…okay that last part was the same, it was just a different subject.

Arthur pushed open the door to their room and stared blankly at the other two in there. Gilbert and Matthew were already fast asleep.

"Well." Arthur commented, "I shall have to be quiet." He quietly walked across the room and frowned at the bunk-bed. Now how was he going to climb on top? The ladder he knew already creaked with each step. Best to use the foot of the bed as a ladder then.

"Yeah good luck with that. These beds make a lot of noise." Lovino grumbled, climbing onto his mattress.

Arthur hoisted himself up using the supports at the end of Matthew's bed and pulled himself across the mattress. He smiled at Lovino from the top, "Goodnight."

"Night." Lovino answered.

Arthur rolled over and looked at the wall. It had been a _long_ day. And thankfully it was over. Unfortunately…another one waited them tomorrow. Oh how he wished he could go _home_.

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><p>Yay, update all done~ :D Leave me a review, they are much loved ^_^<p> 


	12. Water balloons! and Please no

I never noticed it until I was going through my updates today but…this story took the lead in reviews. I'm amazed. Lovino's was holding the lead there for a while, actually I'm not really sure when this one pulled ahead. XD Moving on!

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><p>.<p>

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Arthur tossed and turned in a restless sleep. It didn't help he had woken up several times every hour. This mattress was not comfortable at all. He had glanced around him once or twice and had seen Gilbert tossing and turning as well, so at least he wasn't the only one who would be falling asleep in class today, right? Ugh. The thought of going back to those classes was not at all appealing.

Arthur looked up at the ceiling. But there wasn't a way around it was there? He's the one who let himself get to this point, so naturally he had to get himself back out of the hole he had dug himself into. Arthur shook his head at the mental picture of himself in a giant hole in the ground. If he had actually been in a hole that deep he would have just yelled for someone to drop a ladder. Arthur gazed at the ceiling again. …It wasn't really all that different from a physical pit or an emotional pit was it? Either way he should have called for a ladder.

Arthur sighed heavily. He had definitely been the one to get himself into this mess. And of course instead of asking for help he had just tried getting himself out of it, which of course, did not work. At all. And now he was stuck here.

"_RISE AND SHINE! IT'S TIME TO GET UP FOR YOUR MORNING CLASSES AND BREAKFAST!"_

Hearing Gilbert scream profanities at the announcement system made Arthur chuckle a bit, however. Apparently the albino had been awake.

"_RISE AND SHINE!" *_CLICK*

Arthur slowly sat up and rubbed one of his eyes. It did NOT feel like it should be time to get up yet, at all. "Is it morning already?"

"Nein. Four o'clock hardly counts as morning." Gilbert grumbled from his bed. Arthur sighed. Of course they would wake them up early. No different from school. Wait. Who gets up for school at four o'clock in the morning?

Arthur swung his legs over the side and shook his head, trying to clear out the fog that was left in his mind. Today was NOT going to be a good day. He could feel it already. Arthur leaned over and glanced down at Matthew who had just rolled over to face the wall when the announcement came across.

"Hey, Matthew. Wake up!" Arthur called.

"No." Matthew muttered, going farther under the blankets. "It's not time to get up until the sun is in the sky."

"I'm all for that." Gilbert raised his hand.

Arthur sighed, "You know if we all don't get up and moving they're probably going to come in here and force us up."

"I'm up." Lovino suddenly sat up straight in bed.

Arthur smiled and lowered himself to the floor, looking back to see if Matthew was moving yet. The lump under the covers didn't move. "Matthew?" Arthur leaned over him slightly.

"Go away." Matthew grumbled.

"He is clearly not a morning person." Gilbert yawned, "And neither am I."

"You're awake though." Lovino commented, getting out of bed and glaring up at him.

"Yeah. And I've also _been_ awake." Gilbert glared at him. "I couldn't sleep." Gilbert climbed down the ladder and stretched one arm above his head. "I'm gonna fall asleep during class."

Arthur gently shook Matthew, "Come on, time to wake up."

"No." Matthew pulled away and moved closer to the wall.

Arthur sighed heavily and waved for the other two to go on ahead, "We'll catch up with you two!"

"See you later then." Gilbert wandered out of the room, evidently not even caring that he was wearing the same thing he wore to bed.

Lovino followed Gilbert out of the room, also apparently deciding against a change of clothes. Well then. I guess it doesn't really matter does it? Arthur shook his head.

He turned his head and sat on the edge of Matthew's bed, "Didn't sleep well?"

"That would require having slept. I was awake all night." Matthew sighed heavily, rolling over onto his back.

"All night?" Arthur looked at him worried, "Are you going to be all right?"

"Probably not." Matthew sighed heavily.

"If you need to, you can always feign being sick and go to the nurse station. I was down there yesterday after lunch and the nurse let me and Lovino sleep in there." Arthur smiled.

Matthew nodded quietly. That seemed to help, because he slowly sat up. He really did not look awake, "Eh…I'm getting up."

"…You won't have to fake sick that much. You really don't look good." Arthur commented.

"Thanks. That was about as motivating as Alfred." Matthew muttered.

"I try." Arthur laughed, getting up, "I at least know I can't cook and don't attempt to."

"This is true." Matthew smiled.

Arthur and Matthew headed down the hall, deciding against changing. "It's not like anyone is going to care." Arthur shrugged.

Matthew smiled at him and walked along beside Arthur towards the cafeteria.

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Alfred stared at the wall. He had been awake most of the night, thinking about random things that kept popping into his head. This was definitely karma coming back to bite him. Alfred sighed heavily. It did absolutely no good to keep being all depressed. He shook his head furiously and looked over at Antonio.

"Ready to get moving?" Antonio asked, looking back at him.

"No. Ready to go back to sleep. I was hoping when I woke up, this would just have been a nightmare. But my hand is still broken, and Matthew is still not here." Alfred looked at his bandaged hand. At least it would be slightly amusing to see other peoples' reactions to his hand.

Antonio sighed heavily, shifting to pick up his cell phone. "I wonder if ghosts can text back." That would be extremely creepy. And if they could, Alfred didn't want to know about it. Antonio threw his phone in the direction of his backpack before sitting up. "Man. Class had better be worth it." Fortunately, it didn't seem Antonio was going to try.

"No kidding." Alfred groaned, tempted to just crawl back under the covers.

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Arthur stretched his arms above his head while they stood in line to get their breakfast trays. It seemed like none of them had gotten much sleep last night. Well, the more time spent awake, the more time they had to reflect. Or that's what one would think…but time at night was better spent sleeping. Arthur shook his head as he took his tray. Fake eggs and sausage. Yay. Arthur smiled at the host who was handing them out and turned away, rolling his eyes at Matthew, who smiled in return.

Arthur waited until Matthew had taken a tray of his own and they both stepped into the lunchroom, looking around for their two friends. "Looks like they're in the usual back corner." Arthur commented.

"Right behind you." Matthew said.

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Antonio looked over at his phone as it started going off, "Huh?"

"Dude. Who texts you this early?" Alfred asked, glaring at his shoelaces. They were impossible to tie with a bandaged hand. He ended up just tucking them in and giving up entirely.

"Probably Feli." Antonio looked at the phone, freezing as the message popped up. "AH!" He dropped the phone.

"Who is it?" Alfred blinked. Whoa. Had to be someone completely unexpected to make Antonio's face go pale.

"A ghost!" Antonio panicked.

"AAAAAAAAAA!" Alfred ran from the room, "I can't stand ghosts!" Ghosts were creepy! They possessed random objects around the house, and sometimes even people. That and you couldn't even see them when they were standing right in front of you.

He hurried down the stairs and looked around the kitchen. Despite the noise they were making, no one had come out from anywhere in the house. Alfred tilted his head. Are Antonio's parents not home? Alfred shook his head, they were probably heavy sleepers. Alfred peeked in the fridge, his stomach growling.

He quickly closed it again as he heard Antonio come out of the room.

Antonio hurried down the steps, "It's probably Feli with Lovino's phone. Relax."

"Yeah…that would make sense…" Alfred leaned on the table in the dining room, "What's for breakfast?"

"Just grab something from the fridge." Antonio rustled around in his backpack.

"Okay!" Alfred skipped over to the fridge once more and yanked it open, "Food…food…" Well. He didn't really feel right eating someone else's food, so he settled on a can of soda instead. Caffeine works in stressful situations, right? Alfred popped the tab off and started gulping down the drink.

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"What's up?" Arthur sat down next to Lovino. Gilbert was staring rather wide-eyed at his phone.

"Oh apparently some people in school are really upset." Gilbert commented, "Mutti is texting me."

"Really?" Arthur blinked, "That's surprising. The way they all were laughing, I thought they still would be."

Apparently he had said something wrong, because Lovino's face was now red. Arthur looked at him in confusion, wondering what he had said.

"Is something wrong?" Matthew sat next to Gilbert, looking at Lovino in confusion.

"No." Lovino shook his head.

Arthur frowned but turned his attention back to forcing himself to eat the fake eggs. At least the sausage was decent. Which is probably why Gilbert wanted Lovino's.

"Hey by the way, before you destroy the sausage, if you don't want it, gimme." Gilbert held up his fork hopefully.

Lovino glared but offered the sausage over.

"Is that a German thing? You like sausage?" Matthew asked, looking at Gilbert.

"As you put it, 'Germans' tend to call it wurst. And there is a slight difference, just so you know, I just happen to like sausage." Gilbert smiled.

Arthur raised both eyebrows at the obviously forced smile that Gilbert had just given Matthew. Maybe Gilbert didn't like it being pointed out that he was German? Arthur shook his head and went back to eating.

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Alfred continued gulping down the soda. He was half-tempted to steal something edible from the fridge anyhow, but the fruit on the counter was calling him now anyway. Alfred peered in the bowl as he tossed the empty can towards the recycling bin.

Then again…who's to say it's not wax fruit? Better not. Alfred looked over and saw Antonio had opened the fridge just to close it again. Apparently he wasn't eating. Oh well. Soda would tide him over until lunch.

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Arthur quickly followed Gilbert down the hall, looking at the paper he had been handed. Room 14. Well that was not a number he had the day before at least. Then again, he hadn't had his morning classes yesterday. Oh what did the morning hold…

"_Gilbert Beilschmidt, please report to conference room A." *click*_

Obviously something in the way of surprise for Gilbert. Arthur looked up to see the albino glaring at the ceiling. Arthur almost laughed at how funny he looked.

"Conference room A?" Arthur asked, stepping up next to him.

"Where the heck is that?" Gilbert grumbled, glaring around the hallway.

"Good question." Arthur looked up and down the hallway, "Well there's someone you can probably ask." He pointed to one of the cafeteria monitors who had stepped out.

"Ja, ja. Fine." Gilbert stalked over to her, "Yo. Where's conference room A?"

Arthur shook his head and headed down the hallway again, room 14…room 14…

It didn't take him long to find the classroom. Arthur paused at the door and glanced around, Matthew and Lovino were nowhere in sight. He was probably in this class by himself. Oh well. Arthur pushed open the door and sat in a chair that was close by. Hopefully this was a class he wouldn't fall asleep in.

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Alfred hummed as he walked through the hallway. He knew there were several stares from classmates around him, but ignored them. Either they were in sympathy because of Matthew, or they were wondering what happened to his hand. Alfred shook his head, here he was getting gloomy again. Please let something happen to cheer me up. Alfred sighed.

"Hey Alfred. Come over here a sec." Roderich called.

Alfred blinked and walked over, not making a comment that Antonio had followed along behind him. No harm in having someone else in on the conversation right?

"What's up?" Alfred smiled.

Roderich looked at Alfred with eyebrows raised, more than likely about his hand, but shook his head instead of asking. "Just a warning, class isn't going to go as normally planned."

"Is there another assembly or something?" Alfred blinked. Anything but another assembly.

"No. I just decided to take a page from Gilbert's book on living." Roderich tilted his head slightly, still smilling.

"Oh sweet! This is gonna be awesome!" Alfred started laughing. Anything from Gilbert's book of life would be well worth sitting in class for.

"You're actually gonna disrupt class?" Antonio looked at Roderich amazed.

"I am." Roderich smiled, "Everything is set up already."

"This is gonna be sweet!" Alfred grinned. He was so stoked already! Roderich had just cheered him up in less than a minute, maybe the day wouldn't be so long after all.

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Arthur blinked at the video that started playing.

"This was taken from a school just recently. Four students who are now here, wrote their final letters to their classmates before coming to this school." The teacher motioned to the television, "Listen to what they wrote."

Arthur mentally kicked himself. He knew that auditorium all too well.

"_My name is Arthur Kirkland…"_

Arthur buried his face in his hands, oh he did NOT want to listen to this. He looked up at the screen that showed the principal reading off the letter. This is a nightmare! At least he couldn't really see anybody's reactions. Thankfully.

"…_It was because of what I went through every day at this school. Every day I see the same person smiling at some other person. Every day I try my best to focus on something else other than that one person. And every day I fail. Every day I felt myself fall deeper into the depression that I could not get out of."_

Arthur sank in his seat. He did not want to listen to the words he had written. He sounded even more depressed than he felt. That was something that somehow did not seem possible. Arthur just shook his head and looked at the screen.

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Alfred stared at the board. He was keeping himself as calm as possible, though he had to admit, he was slightly bouncing in anticipation, eager for whatever Roderich had planned for the classroom. Oh he could not wait for this!

"Okay class…" The teacher started her speech and the bell rang shortly after. And so did what Roderich had spent probably most of the morning setting up. Oh my word!

Water balloons went flying through the air, from what seemed like all different directions. Alfred watched in amazement as they bounced off each other and then would hit something or someone and send water spraying everywhere.

"WHOA!" Alfred yelped, ducking as one exploded just above his head, "Ahahahaha! This is freaking awesome!"

Alfred laughed as a water balloon hit the teacher's desk, completely soaking any papers she had laying out on the top of it.

"WHO. DID THIS?" The teacher yelped, as the water balloons stopped coming.

Alfred clutched at his ribs and continued laughing, "Oh man!"

Antonio was laughing along with, "That was so funny!"

Alfred perked up as the water balloons started flying through the air once more, laughing even harder when one hit the principal who had just stepped into the room.

"Well. I see Gilbert's legacy still lives." The principal commented, clearly annoyed. Well, who wouldn't be after stepping into a class and getting hit by a water balloon?

"Oh my word." The teacher looked around, "I know he didn't set this up, who the heck was it?" She looked around the room, as if expecting to get an answer. Alfred turned in his seat to look at Roderich hopefully. This was too amazing to end now.

"Three…two…one…" Roderich smiled at Alfred.

Alfred looked up as water balloons rained down from above them, not even caring that one broke on his head. He couldn't stop laughing!

"RODERICH! THIS BETTER NOT HAVE BEEN YOU!" The principal yelled, his face beet red.

"Ahahahahaha!" Alfred continued laughing.

"Guilty." Roderich raised his hand, laughing.

"Oh my word! Gilbert would be on the floor laughing so hard right now!" Antonio burst out laughing again. Oh man if only Gilbert and Arthur were here!

"Why would you do this?" The teacher gaped around the soaked classroom.

Alfred looked at Roderich, wondering what his response would be.

Roderich stood up and smiled, "I quote: There are some unawesome teachers around here who don't know how to laugh a little."

Alfred started clapping, despite his broken hand, "Encore~" What a hilarious edition to Gilbert's legacy of class disruptions, he had trained someone to follow in his footsteps!

"NO!" The principal yelled.

"Encore!" Antonio joined in clapping.

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Arthur was close to tears, he hated to admit it, but he was. It's no wonder Lovino had turned red this morning. He had written exactly what Arthur had commented on. Arthur put a hand over his mouth, watching the video. He was probably the only one in the room this close to tears.

"_What are we supposed to do? We were being laughed at and made fun of. Every day. This isn't something I can come to school for. This isn't worth living my life for. Not to be made fun of for something I can't control…"_

It was almost like he could hear Lovino's voice saying it, and that really wasn't helping. Arthur rubbed at his eyes, trying to get the tears to stop.

"…_I refuse to keep waking myself up every day to know that when I get to school, I will be laughed at for suffering from depression. They may not know who specifically we are, but we know. And it still hurts."_

Arthur hid his face in his hands. He did not want to listen to this. Arthur shook his head again, but this time could feel a couple teardrops had escaped.

.

.

"Roderich, out in the hall." The principal pointed at the door.

"Just so you know, there's something else coming." Roderich waved cheerfully before leaving the room.

"What else is coming?" The principal looked after Roderich, "Well turn it off, whatever it is!"

"That would be completely disrespectful to Gilbert." Roderich commented, just out of Alfred's line of sight, "He's not around to keep class entertained anymore, so I thought it would be necessary to have something happen every once in a while."

"If you ever do this again, so help me…" The teacher whispered. "The classroom is soaked!"

If he ever does this again, he's getting a standing ovation. Alfred smiled.

"Yes. Yes it is." Roderich nodded, now standing in the doorway of the classroom. He looked around at everything that was now ruined. "But it was worth it."

"It was so worth it!" Alfred cheered.

"Encore!" Antonio cheered.

"NO encores!" The principal snapped.

Roderich looked at his watch, "Three. Two. One…"

"Turn it off!" The teacher ducked underneath her desk.

"RODERICH!" The principal yelled, as once again, the balloons started flying.

"Yaay!" Alfred stood up cheering and clapping, despite the flying water balloons. "Roderich, this was totally awesome!" He would be a standing ovation of one for now.

Antonio raised both hands in the air, "Class was so worth getting up for!"

Roderich smiled and waved at the class. Alfred looked around and saw all of their classmates were laughing. The teacher crawled out from under her desk and stared at the class, before looking over at Roderich.

"I think. You surpassed Gilbert a bit. He never went to this extreme." The teacher pointed at the room.

"I like to think I made him smile." Roderich laughed. Oh he would have definitely made Gilbert smile.

"OUT." The principal pushed Roderich out the door, "And to the office!"

"I can walk! You don't have to push!" Roderich called loudly.

"Well. I don't suppose there's any reason for me to even try teaching." The teacher leaned against the desk.

Antonio looked around the room at everything, "Still. It made everyone laugh."

"It did." The teacher nodded, "I'll give him credit for that one."

Alfred clapped his hands together, "Oh man! He's so getting in trouble for this one!" Alfred glanced around the room, there was water dripping from quite a few of the desks. He had to wonder though. Who was going to be stuck cleaning all of this up? Probably Roderich.

.

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><p>So Alfred had a fun morning class and Arthur…eh…not even close to a fun morning class. :) Leave me a review~ :D<p> 


	13. Duct tape! and Not that letter please

…not really much to say here. Other than: I did a crappy job with Arthur's teacher in the last chapter, I will attempt to do better in this one. XD And I thought I had posted this the other day but apparently not. My bad.

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><p>.<p>

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Arthur listened to Matthew's letter being read by the principal and closed his eyes. He just listened while his eyes remained closed, his mind drawing a clear picture of what Matthew must have gone through every day in school. True, it just seemed like Matthew blended in with his surroundings. He was hard to notice, because he was so quiet. But on how many occasions had he spoken up and got confused for Alfred? Yet Matthew had no ill-feelings toward his brother. He was just tired of not existing to anyone unless they thought he was his older brother, or they were angry at his older brother for something. He only existed when it was convenient.

Arthur opened his eyes again. He was friends with Cruz wasn't he? Arthur tilted his head, wondering why Matthew never spoke to Cruz about the way he was feeling. Maybe Cruz had started looking over him as well. Arthur sighed heavily. Compared to Lovino and Matthew, he really had no reason to be here. Arthur shook his head and looked at the screen again as the principal had begun reading Gilbert's final letter. It seemed lighter than the other three, probably because of the person writing it.

Arthur smiled as the principal read words he would normally never say, such as awesome and unawesome. It was just like Gilbert to make the principal read something like that. But that letter of Gilbert's…it sounded almost…sad. Regretting something that wasn't explained. Arthur tilted his head slightly. Lovino was bitter about the way they were being laughed at, Matthew was tired of existing only for convenience's sake…he, himself, was tired of the heaviness that he felt like he was carrying around all the time, mostly because of Alfred, why he got so depressed over a crush was unknown to him. But Gilbert's was…sad. Did he want to meet the other half of his family, perhaps? Or he wanted to live. Arthur froze. He wanted to live? But this was just a therapy session, they were only pretending they were deceased.

But for Gilbert…it would be reality soon. And it was a harsh reality he had to face by himself. Was that why the letter came across as sad? Arthur shook his head. He was really thinking too much into this…right? Imagining Gilbert as sad just somehow did not come to his mind's eye…but that letter…

.

.

Alfred continued thinking about the water balloons that had soaked everything and everyone in the classroom. He grinned and started laughing again.

"Dude, we should totally back Roderich up on this one!" Alfred grinned, bouncing up and down like an excited child. That guy had come up with the greatest idea ever! They could totally bring back happiness to their year!

"Yeah, but we gotta come up with something to do during the next class." Antonio frowned. "I'm all for causing a class disruption, but what do we do?"

Alfred pouted. "I always relied on Gilbert for this sort of thing." Gilbert had always had the best ideas, even though they were mostly all come up with on the spot. Like flinging pieces of paper at certain targets.

"Feliciano is in my next class…" Antonio said quietly, "Hmm…maybe…" He tilted his head slightly.

"You have an idea?" Alfred asked, eyes sparkling. Oh man, did he have an idea? If he did that would be so cool!

"I do." Antonio smiled. "However, it's going to mean a disruption in the sports storage room first."

"I have a key! Let's go!" Alfred grinned. Star athletes were always given the key to the equipment room. Not that he ever used it, but the point was: he had one!

Antonio and Alfred hurried off to the storage room where all the athletic equipment was kept. Alfred unlocked it with his good hand and kicked it open with his foot. The room was a verifiable gold mine for sports team captains who wanted equipment.

"Wow, loads of stuff in here." Antonio stared at the room wide-eyed.

"Yeah. We don't use half of it." Alfred made a face. What was even the point of having it all, if it wasn't used? They should just have a giant yard sale and buy all new equipment.

"Geez." Antonio wandered into the room and peeked in a nearby box. "Oh hello, what's this?" He pulled out a deflated clear beach ball.

"We use it for volleyball now and then. There's a bunch of them in here." Alfred shrugged. And now we don't play Volleyball, not even in gym class.

Antonio looked at Alfred, with a mischievous grin, "Can I use it?"

Alfred burst out laughing, "Yeah sure. There's an inflater in there too." Alfred dug it out and handed it to him, "Hopefully you sit in the back of the class." He was going to fling beach balls around the room. Oh that would be hilarious.

"Yeah. No worries about that." Antonio took several of the deflated beach balls and the air pump. "This is going to be fun."

"Man, I wish I was in that class. I'm with Cruz in the next class. I should find something…" Alfred looked around the sports room, "I don't know what to do though." That Cuban guy almost never laughed. He had to come up with something…

Antonio held up a giant roll of duct tape, "What is this for?"

"Hm? Oh we use that on hockey sticks now and then…" Alfred's voice trailed off, "I just got an idea." He snatched the duct tape roll from Antonio, "I'll totally see you in the principal's office~!" Heck yeah! Even Cruz would laugh at this one!

Antonio burst out laughing, "What are you going to do with that?"

"I'll tell you if I can pull it off." Alfred winked at Antonio and hurried out of the room, "And the classroom is empty now, I got twenty minutes to do this." Twenty minutes with one good hand.

"Have fun." Antonio laughed and went off in the direction of his own classroom.

Alfred scurried into the empty classroom and shut the door behind him, quickly turning off all the lights so no one would interrupt him. "Okay, let's do this." Alfred hung the roll of duct tape on the wrist that had the broken hand and began pulling on the duct tape, pulling off one long strip that covered the top of the blackboard. This was gonna be sweet. Duct tape totally works on everything, right?

Alfred covered the entire blackboard in duct tape. Now…second part of the idea. Alfred glanced around the room. He stuck one end of the duct tape to the black board and ran across to the back of the room so there was a giant piece of tape going from one side of the room to the other.

"It's totally like Halloween with toilet paper, except with duct tape." Alfred grinned and ran to another wall, bouncing off that one and going to the other side, making sure the tape went up and over the tape that ran through the center.

Alfred smiled at his creation and nodded happily. "But it still needs something…" He glanced around the room until his eyes settled on the test papers that were to be handed out. "A worthy sacrifice." Alfred started slapping the papers to the sticky side of the duct tape that ran through the room, happily making one long row of white until all the paper was gone.

"Not bad. Not bad at all." Alfred nodded. "Class disrupted, check. Tests ruined, check." He looked at the duct tape that was still leftover on the roll. His eyes slowly went to the teacher's desk. "Hmmm…"

Starting at the legs of the desk, he circled around it, wrapping the desk in a casing of duct tape and made a giant silver X going across the top of it. He accidentally knocked over a black bottle that was sitting on top of the desk, but oh well, shouldn't have open bottles laying around anyway!

Alfred hurried over to the supplies drawer that was in the filing cabinet near the door and took out the biggest black marker he could find. He wrote in giant lettering going across the duct-taped-blackboard and threw the marker back in the filing cabinet before duct-taping the entire thing to the wall.

"He is going to flip." Alfred laughed and looked around the room. Perfect. Alfred peeked out into the hallway and smiled when he didn't see anyone. He scurried out and hurried around the corner, tucking the roll of tape into his backpack that he was allowed to carry with him.

There was a lot of duct tape on that roll! And it came in handy! Alfred spotted Cruz approaching the room and grinned. That meant the other students were on their way as well. Perfect.

.

.

Arthur watched as the teacher switched off the screen and looked at the class.

"Now, you just saw the four letters being read, voicing their thoughts and emotions on the assembly they had the day before. There are a few of you here, who had this same assembly, are here for the same reason as these four students. So what do you think of these letters?" The teacher looked around the room, "What do you think these four can do, to improve their emotional outlook on life?"

Arthur kept his hands folded on his desk. He shouldn't speak up at all, since he was one of the four, right? Arthur looked around the room as one or two wavering hands went up.

"Yes, you in the second row, what do you think?" The teacher pointed to the first hand that had gone up.

"Um well…the first letter struck me as rather…lonely."

Lonely? What? I'm lonely now? Arthur thought back to the letter he had written. How did that come across as lonely?

"How so?" The teacher smiled, attempting to encourage the speaker.

"W-well he started off the letter by saying when 'someone reads this'…wouldn't most people hope that their friend would find it? I know that they were told to write these, but your friends are usually the first ones to find you. But the way he wrote it, it made it sound like he wasn't expecting anyone to find him if he had actually killed himself."

Arthur slumped in his seat a bit. That thought had never even crossed his mind.

"Excellent observation. Was there any other clues you heard?" She smiled at the student. Did she think he was lonely, too?

"He mentioned hearing people talking all the time, like it was just conversations overheard, he didn't mention any friends of his saying it. But he still listened to what other people were saying, he might have wanted to be included in on the conversation they were having…"

Arthur mentally slapped himself over the head. Okay, that was something else he hadn't noticed. Maybe he really was a lonely person. But still, lonely alone doesn't make someone this depressed, right?

"He also mentioned loving his family, but that's all he said about them. Other than that he hoped they would move on. He doesn't really have a high opinion of himself, and thinks that people would be better off without him there." The same student kept talking, going on without the teacher's encouragement this time.

Arthur slowly turned his head towards the speaker. Seriously? You can read this much into a letter? Well…it's no different than what I was doing with Gilbert's letter I suppose…but still…somehow it comes across differently when it's mine that they're talking about.

"Yes that is something that was noted by counselors here. The first letter that was read off, was written by someone who spent most of his time alone, or maybe with just one close friend, who he didn't think he could trust his burden onto, or didn't want to pass his burden on to that person. His family, he mentioned loving dearly, but he couldn't express his feelings to them either. This person feels detached from the world. This happens often in teenagers, they see everyone around them finding their place so early and moving fast, while they're at a roadblock because they don't know where to go." The teacher nodded.

Oh is that it. I'm at a roadblock. That explains a lot. Arthur stared at the teacher. Does she even know I'm in the room? I really don't think she does. All the principal said was the name, there weren't any pictures showing or anything, at least not from the view we had. So…she doesn't know I'm in here. Just bloody perfect. Arthur sunk lower in his seat.

"This type of loneliness builds up over time. He may find himself left out of the major school organizations, and so left out of friendship groups that build from members in those clubs…"

Well it's true that we have a student council of two…but…okay and Roderich is about the only person I talked to in school. I exchanged the occasional conversation with Matthew and Alfred, but Matthew is hard to spot in a crowd, and Alfred is into sports and talks more to the other athletes...ugh. Everything they're saying makes sense… Arthur ran a hand through his hair. I just want to crawl into a hole and hide.

"It may not have even started in high school, this may have started in middle school, or even elementary. If his parents paid more attention to his siblings, he may have felt left out of having the parental guidance that other students around him had."

Arthur winced slightly. That makes me sound like an attention-deprived child.

"So what kind of solutions do you think we can come up with for this person?" The teacher looked around the room.

"Um…try opening up more to a friend?"

"Talking more instead of being the one to listen all the time." The teacher nodded.

Arthur made a face. Okay she hit the bulls-eye with that one.

"M-maybe he could talk to his parents? It doesn't have to be about feeling left out, maybe he could bring up the idea of having a family night once a week…"

"Oh! That's a good idea! That way he doesn't have to feel the embarrassment of having to explain why he feels the way he does." The teacher nodded enthusiastically. "What about anyone over here? This is the silent row it seems." She looked over at the row that Arthur was sitting in.

Don't call on me please. Arthur looked anywhere but directly at the teacher. I'm not here…I'm not here…I want Matthew's invisibility…

"It can be an observation over the first letter or a possible solution, either one." The teacher smiled at the row that hadn't had anyone speak up.

I cannot give criticism on myself when I can't understand myself. Arthur edged lower in his seat very slowly. Don't call on me please… He could feel eyes from around the classroom staring at the row he was sitting in, even if it wasn't directly at him, it was still uncomfortable.

"Do you have any ideas?" The teacher smiled at the first student in the row.

She's going to call down on each person in the row isn't she. Bloody hell, of all the places to sit, it had to be the second seat. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Arthur continued mentally cursing as he sent up a silent prayer that the first person would say something. Anything.

The girl in front of him shook her head fervently back and forth. Crap.

"It's okay. How about you?" The teacher smiled at Arthur.

Can I just shake my head? Arthur could almost feel his cheeks turning red in embarrassment. Why me? I know she's calling on everyone but can't she skip my seat?

"Do you have an observation or a solution?" The teacher continued smiling.

"He seemed rather sad about the person he wanted to talk to not noticing him." The girl in front of him finally spoke up.

Thank you. Arthur thought silently.

"Oh, I almost forgot about that sentence! Good thinking." The teacher smiled at her, "It appears that sentence may have been directed towards someone he wanted to befriend, or perhaps someone he had a crush on." She smiled at Arthur again.

She's still expecting me to say something. Damn. It.

"Anything?" She looked hopefully at Arthur.

Arthur just shook his head, his face still burning red.

"No need to be shy~, anything you can come up with will not be criticized here." The teacher smiled.

That's not why I'm not talking! Arthur met her eyes for a brief moment before looking away again. I don't want to talk about this.

"Similar feeling?" The teacher edged closer over to Arthur's seat.

Now the stares of the classroom really _were_ directed at him. Perfect. Just bloody perfect.

"The only way your voice can be heard is by speaking up." The teacher smiled kindly at him.

She clearly was not going to leave him alone. Okay. Apparently he had to say this after all. Crap. He was going to get A LOT of stares. I wish I had paper I could just write it down on… Arthur looked up at her again.

"Yes?" The teacher asked hopefully. "Anything? No need to feel shy or embarrassed, everyone sitting here in this room is here because of an emotional problem they need to work through."

Everyone except you. Except you're standing and not sitting. Arthur continued to stare at her. No means no. What are you trying to prompt me to say?

"What about when he said in the letter how he couldn't focus on anything except that one person, what crosses your mind when you hear that?" The teacher smiled at Arthur again. Clearly not letting him off the hook on this one.

Is something supposed to cross my mind? Arthur just continued staring at her. I thought it was pretty self-explanatory when I wrote it.

"Sounds like he's rather upset that the person doesn't notice him back." There was a quiet whisper behind him.

"Good." The teacher nodded.

Arthur sent out a mental plea to the teacher: move on to someone else please. Just go awaaaaay.

"So maybe he could talk to this person, attempt to tell them how he feels." The teacher nodded.

How the bloody hell is that ever going to work? Hello? If he's too shy to talk to them in the first place, he's too shy to tell the person how he feels, and damn it, now I'm referring to myself in third person, and I most certainly am NOT SHY.

"So possible solutions…I think we covered everything in the letter. Can you come up with a solution?" The teacher peered at Arthur again.

That does it. Arthur looked back up from his desk to the teacher again, "Ma'am. If I could come up with a solution I would not be sitting here right now."

"Okay you have a valid point there. But you've had classes yesterday, right? Did any of them help you come up with any ideas you can use when you get back to school?" The teacher smiled, apparently happy that he finally spoke.

"No." Arthur said flatly.

"You can't think of a solution when it applies to someone else either?" The teacher frowned a bit.

Well maybe if you give me another situation to work with here. Arthur mentally rolled his eyes.

"I will not budge until you give me something." The teacher continued to stare at him.

I can give you my name. Arthur returned the stare. I don't think that fly over real well though. And obviously she is _not_ giving up.

"Solution…observation…anything for the first letter?" She tried again.

Any letter but the first one. Arthur continued staring right back. Ask me about one of the other letters. Please.

"Aaaaaanything? Most people can come up with ideas for a different person, even if the problem is similar."

"You're not giving up on this are you." Arthur sighed heavily.

"No I am not. I am determined." The teacher stared at him with a glint in her eye.

I wonder how long it is until class is over.

"I will not budge from this topic until you say something."

Terrific. We're going to be here all day.

"Just say something." The student behind him hissed, "Anything."

"Any ideas…" The teacher encouraged.

Arthur let out an irritated sigh, "I said no already. How many times must I say it? I have no thoughts whatsoever on that first letter."

"You must have had one thought cross your mind." The teacher attempted to prompt him again.

Plenty of thoughts about you at the moment. Arthur half-glared at her. "Not one."

"Then what were you thinking about?"

"How much I would rather be anywhere but here." Arthur smiled innocently.

There were stifled laughs from around him, much to the teacher's annoyance.

"Did you hear the first letter at all?" The teacher sighed.

"Yes I did. Every word of it." Arthur commented.

"Well then. Make a comment on it. Any comment." The teacher added, "What you think of this person's personality, the way he wrote the letter…anything."

"Ma'am. I've told you before, I have no comments on this letter."

"Just make something up!" The person behind him hissed again.

"I can tell you a comment on any other letter, but not this first one." Arthur added. Take the window of opportunity and switch the damn topic.

"We're talking about the first one." The teacher pouted.

"I have no comments on the first one." Arthur repeated.

"Okay, then you must have a reason for not having any comments. Similar loneliness?"

"I don't feel lonely at all." Arthur retorted.

"What about what we were talking about? One close friend, can't talk to anyone…?"

"That, I'll admit is correct. But I do not feel lonely."

"We're getting somewhere though."

News to me. Arthur just stared at her.

"So if your feelings are similar to that of the writer here…then you can put yourself in his shoes!" The teacher clapped her hands together, "What do you think is going through his head right now?"

"How much he wants to get out of this place." Arthur snapped, getting more stifled laughs as a response.

"Okay putting that thought aside, what _else_ do you think is going through his head?"

"Are we also putting aside the meal quality?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"Yes. Put aside the meal quality." The teacher sighed. There were more laughs. "Think of what is going through his head in regards to how he must have felt at school."

"I can be pretty sure, he didn't know what he was thinking when he was at school. Clearly he didn't know what was thinking if it whatever it was he was thinking about wound him up here." Arthur snapped.

"The emotional aptitude test got him here." The teacher sighed.

"I am well aware of that. He should have just lied when taking it." Arthur grumbled. And I'm referring to myself in third person again. I hope this habit doesn't stick.

"No no no no no. No lying." The teacher shook her head, "Do you have someone you liked but couldn't talk to?"

"Doesn't everyone?" Arthur asked, making a face.

"Well yes, good point, but still. You had someone. Okay. Think of this person, what is the first thing you're going to do when you see him or her again?"

"Hit him over the head." Arthur smiled innocently. More laughs.

"Okay. How about the next thing?"

"Was there something to do after that?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.

"Talking to him maybe…"

"Why would I talk to him? If I couldn't talk to him then, I'm not going to talk to him whenever I get out of here." Arthur stared at her in disbelief, "Two entirely different social circles."

"Okay, so social circles is a limitation for you." The teacher clapped her hands together, pleased to finally get something, "So would you say social circles affected this writer as well?"

Arthur just stared at her. "Well obviously."

"Did you pick up on that while hearing the letter?"

"No. I picked it up while wearing his shoes." Arthur smiled. Even more laughing.

The teacher sighed heavily. "Okay inferring from the letter, would you say that social circles were a limitation for him?"

"How many times must I tell you? I cannot give any comments or anything to this letter." Arthur stared at her. "I have no thoughts on it, no criticism on it, nothing. I do not criticize what I cannot understand."

"What couldn't you understand?" The teacher blinked at him.

"What he was feeling, thinking, going through, how many other terms do you want?" Arthur raised an eyebrow again.

"You're in his shoes now, right? Similar feeling, you should be able to know what he was thinking."

"Yes and the shoe is the exact same size. It fits perfectly. But no, I cannot tell you what he was thinking, what he was feeling, or anything else." Arthur stared at her.

"…I get the feeling there was a reason you said the shoe was a perfect fit…but somehow. I can't see the reason." The teacher made a face, trying to think.

Arthur just let out a sigh of frustration. So close, and yet soooo far away.

"Pardon me for interrupting…but perhaps could I borrow someone?" The nurse peeked in, "His friend is in the nurse station and needs to talk to someone, hopefully to be able to calm down long enough to sleep…"

That sounds like Matthew.

"Oh sure, what's the student's name up in the nurse station?"

"Matthew Williams." The nurse smiled gratefully.

"Friend of Matthew Williams?" The teacher looked around.

Arthur raised his hand and smiled innocently at the teacher.

The teacher just stared at him, "Seriously?"

"Why would I lie about that? Do you see anyone else raising their hand?" Arthur stared at her.

"Say something before you leave? Anything?" The teacher tried once again.

Arthur rolled his eyes, "Fine. I will tell you my name is Arthur Kirkland, thank you very much. Have a good day." Arthur stalked out of the room, following the nurse. He would have found the squeaking noise from the teacher funny if he hadn't been so annoyed already.

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Alfred sat in his seat, looking around him cheerfully. His classmates were sitting in their desks, looking at the massive webbing of duct tape. He noticed Cruz was staring around the room in disbelief, their eyes met briefly but Cruz turned away. Alfred pouted but cheered up when the teacher walked in.

"Okay. What happened here?" The teacher raised an eyebrow. He looked at the white papers that were duct-taped around the room and sighed. "Well. I see someone didn't like the idea of taking a test today."

Alfred watched Cruz's reaction closely. There it was. A definite smile. Yes.

The teacher looked at the black writing that went across the silver black-board, "Class dismissed, hm? Someone had the time to duct tape the entire black board. The entire room…my desk. The filing cabinet. And attach every single test paper, including the answer key to the tape. Someone clearly must have the free time to spend in detention as well."

Alfred kept an innocent expression on his face. Well. Innocent as possible anyway.

"So. Who did this?" The teacher leaned on his taped desk, and looked at the classroom. "I know one of you did. It wasn't like this when I was in here at the start of last class."

Alfred looked around the room, taking in the sight of the room. This was nice. He almost wished he had balanced something to fall on the teacher if he would yank at one of the pieces of tape. Idea for next time.

Alfred noticed Cruz looking at him with a strange expression on his face. Alfred tilted his head and smiled cheerfully, waving at him with his broken hand, causing Cruz to raise an eyebrow.

"Anyone want to stand up and admit that this is their handywork?" The teacher looked around the room.

"Who would admit to this…" It was a whisper that came from somewhere in the room, from where, Alfred couldn't quite tell.

"Oh I don't know. Someone who doesn't want their classmates to be stuck in detention because of them…" The teacher yanked on one of the pieces of duct tape.

At some point, the duct tape that made the x in the center of the room had come close enough together for both strips to stick fast to each other. When the teacher yanked harder, the entire thing fell down on the class.

Alfred blinked, one desk away from having duct tape land on his head. That was close. Alfred put his good hand over his mouth to keep from laughing.

"Oh for…" The teacher went to get the duct tape, but found while he was leaning with one hand on his desk, he had inadvertently put his hand next to the bottle that Alfred had knocked over. He raised his hand and found it was covered in ink.

Alfred's eyes widened. Who keeps a bottle of ink on their desk? What century pen was this guy using?

"Oh real good. Ruin everything on my desk by spilling ink." The teacher commented, waving his hand around and sending ink droplets everywhere.

Alfred peeked over and saw Cruz was restraining himself from laughter. Yay! It's working! Totally by accident, but it's working!

Growling in annoyance, their teacher went to try and clean off his hand with the other one but now found he couldn't let go of the fistful of duct tape he had. He waved both hands around angrily, trying to get the duct tape to let go.

"This…is…going too far!" The teacher waved the ink-covered hand across his desk and knocked the bottle across the room, sending ink spraying all across the desks and floor.

Alfred watched as the bottle rolled to a stop. Wow. That worked better than he thought it would. Now class really was over.

Any restraints from laughing were quickly lost as snickers escaped from Alfred's classmates. Alfred grinned as he saw Cruz was now openly laughing at the scene that kept getting worse. My idea is totally working!

The teacher finally grabbed a hold of the duct tape that was stuck in his one hand with the other and yanked it out of his grip, though now found it stuck in the hand that was also covered in ink. "Who did this?"

Alfred did his best to keep a straight face while everyone around him kept laughing.

The teacher yanked in the giant web of duct tape, crushing it into a ball, along with the test papers that were stuck fast, and hurled it angrily at the wall, after he had finally gotten it off his hand.

Alfred watched more ink droplets fly from his hand and splatter the duct tape that was still on the blackboard. He grinned as he watched the teacher try to peel it off, only to find that he couldn't get the edges to peel up. That was a genius idea.

"Whoever did this can march themselves to the office right now, this is outrageous." The teacher snapped at the class who was still laughing. He continued to try and peel the duct tape off the board, but to no avail.

Alfred looked around the room, an innocent expression still on his face, "Yeah guys. This is totally outrageous. Now who would disrupt class like this?"

A ripple of laughter went through the room at Alfred's obvious sarcasm. Cruz just turned back towards him and gave him a you-didn't look. Alfred grinned. Cruz covered his mouth and tried hard to suppress the laughter that was now shaking him.

"Some people just have no consideration for learning." Alfred shook his head with fake sincerity, "Honestly."

The teacher turned around and glared at the class, "Whoever duct-taped this board can damn well get it off the board!"

Well maybe if he wasn't starting at the side that I ended with. Alfred looked around the room, but no one was getting up to help. Well. The hero might as well step up!

Alfred waited until the teacher had his back turned again, "Well if no one else is going to offer to help. I guess I will." Alfred stood up and wandered to the front of the room, grinning at the laughs that were rippling across the room again. He wandered to the other side of the board nonchalantly and took hold of the loose strip that was on the bottom of the board.

Whistling innocently, he walked from one side of the board to the other, peeling it off in a long train. Alfred grinned and handed it to the teacher before going back from where he started from.

"Someone has manners at least." The teacher huffed, letting Alfred peel the duct tape off the board.

"Yup. I totally have manners." Alfred grinned while peeling off another strip of duct tape.

"Someone in this classroom decided to duct tape in here, and no one is leaving until I know who!" The teacher snapped, turning so his back was facing Alfred.

Alfred held up the second strip of duct tape and very lightly tapped it on the teacher's shoulder. He quickly turned and peeled the third strip off, tapping it on the other shoulder before going for the fourth one. Alfred peeked over his shoulder and found the teacher hadn't realized what he was doing yet. Alfred grinned and peeled off the fourth strip, tapping it horizontally across both shoulders. He grinned at his classmates, most of whom were failing to keep straight faces.

"Okay last one!" Alfred peeled off the top strip of duct tape and crumbled it up into a ball.

"Oh, thank you Alfred." The teacher looked back at him.

"No problem." Alfred grinned, tossing the ball of duct tape up and down in his good hand.

"Hm? What did you do with the others?" The teacher looked around confused.

Alfred shrugged and continued tossing the ball of duct tape in the air. I wonder how far I can throw this.

The teacher arched an eyebrow at him but turned back to the class. Alfred couldn't resist. He balanced the ball of duct tape on the top of the teacher's head and quickly retreated to his seat.

"Thank you. Alfred." The teacher reached up and detached the ball of duct tape from his hair, "Was that necessary?"

"It was." Alfred smiled, "It matched."

"Matched what?"

"Your tail." Alfred pointed, grinning.

The teacher looked over his shoulder confused and promptly reddened at finding where the other strips of tape had gone, "ALFRED!"

"Yo!" Alfred waved, "Present!"

"Did you duct tape this room?" The teacher glared at him.

"Me? Now how would I do that?" Alfred held up one broken hand, "Don't you need two hands for that?"

The teacher faltered a bit and made a face.

"Yeah the answer is no. You really don't need two hands." Alfred shrugged. He took out the roll of duct tape from his back pack and slipped it over his cast so it was hanging off his wrist, "Works just as well like this!" Alfred grinned at the teacher's reddening face, and Cruz almost having a fit of laughter.

"Alfred…" The teacher started.

"I know, I know. To the office. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200." Alfred picked up his backpack with his free hand, "Farewell! You all have been a wonderful audience~!" Alfred waved the hand that was in a cast to his classmates before running out the door.

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><p>So this chapter ended up being LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. Sorry about that. Oh well. More stuff for review fodder right? 8D<p> 


	14. Tallying what? and How did I help?

I had quite a few comments that said the last chapter made people laugh. I'm happy I could bring some cheer to my reviewers! 8D I shall do my best to not ruin that. *absolutely no promises whatsoever* Oh and I'm adding what was added into Canada Style but not to british style because it was so long already. So this one will probably be just as long. Sorry. = w =;

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Hello." Arthur walked into the nurse station. He made his way over to the bed that Matthew was laying on, noticing the blonde was definitely looking even worse than he had this morning.

"Hey…" Matthew gave a weak wave from the bed.

"Can't sleep, huh?" Arthur sat down on the edge of the bed.

"This…sucks." Matthew buried his face into the pillow, and it sounded like he was cursing into it.

Arthur chuckled a bit, "Yes, well I quite agree. Believe me, the class you just pulled me out of was most certainly the most awful one I have sat in yet. And thank you for calling me out of it, by the way." Arthur added.

"Eh? What happened?" Matthew blinked at him curiously, peering over the top of the pillow.

"They were showing a video of the principal reading off our letters." Arthur said flatly, "Unfortunately the teacher wanted us to comment on the letters, and of course she wouldn't leave me out of it."

"She didn't know your name, eh?" Matthew smiled softly.

"No. I don't think she knew anyone's name." Arthur shook his head, frustrated, "Fortunately the nurse came by and asked for your friend to come out, so I said my name as I was leaving and gave her a rather nasty glare."

Matthew laughed, "It's hard to comment on a letter you wrote."

"Quite. I have no comments on mine, I could have written a page or two on the other three that were read, but not mine." Arthur shook his head, "Oh, and some of the comments they were making were absolutely the most ridiculous things they could have come up with!" Arthur huffed.

Matthew raised both eyebrows, "Eh? Why?"

"They were calling me a lonely person!" Arthur grumbled.

"How are you lonely with Alfred constantly bugging you?" Matthew laughed.

"Completely impossible." Arthur waved a hand around, and it really was, "And worse yet, they went on to comment how I mentioned in the letter as if a stranger would be the one to find it instead of a friend, and so they made the decision that I must not have any friends, or if I do, it's only one or two. It was completely rude to listen to!"

_Still no clue how they managed to come up with that one._

"I can imagine. But…I've only ever seen you talking with Roderich or Alfred." Matthew winced as he said it, apparently bracing himself for a retort.

"Yes. I know." Arthur sighed heavily, agreeing even though he didn't want to, "Unfortunately, as ridiculous as it was, it was also correct."

"Ehhh…" Matthew reached up and patted Arthur on the shoulder.

Arthur quickly shook his head to get rid of the depression that was coming back, "Their so-called solutions need to be thrown into the nearest trashcan. Really. Suggest a family night to parents, try talking to the one person I mentioned in the letter, now honestly, if I could have done that, I would have already!" Arthur snapped.

Matthew burst out laughing, "Family night? How is that supposed to help?"

"I have no idea what their thinking behind any of that rubbish was, and by the way, what did you call me for here anyway?" Arthur looked at him confused, "Why not Gilbert or Lovino?" The thought had come into his head rather suddenly, but now he was curious.

"Eh? Gilbert was in a conference room…emphasis on _was._ He's not there now, and Lovino. . .I don't really know him. You're friends with Alfred so I figured it would be easier to talk to you." Matthew blushed.

_How would Matthew know that Gilbert isn't…wait._

"Since when am I friends with Alfred?" Arthur just stared at him.

"Eh? But you're always helping him study…and he talks about you a lot…how he likes being your…friend..and…" Matthew's voice trailed off.

_He said…WHAT?_

"Remind me to _kill him._" Arthur forced a smile. Oh he was going to strangle that self-proclaimed hero.

"Eh? Did I say something wrong?" Matthew panicked.

"Nothing. Anything he said was probably making fun of me anyhow." Arthur crossed his arms and scowled.

"…sorry…but…I don't think Alfred was making fun of you. He always talked about you so cheerfully…he just loved being around you." Matthew shrank under the covers a bit.

Arthur felt his face grow hot from the last comment and buried his face in his hands. Don't take it out on Matthew, don't take it out on Matthew, not his fault, not his fault, "Damn that stupid…hamburger loving…idiot."

"S-sorry…" Matthew whispered again.

"Don't worry about it." Arthur dropped his hands to his lap again, "I really don't think I'm helping you fall asleep though."

"You're cheering me up though!" Matthew smiled. How on earth was Arthur doing that? He was just sitting here!

Arthur looked at him in confusion.

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Alfred swung his legs back and forth in front of him. This was kinda boring just sitting here and doing nothing. Antonio wasn't saying anything either. Alfred grinned at the secretary, apparently prompting her to check her watch, again. He looked over at Antonio and smiled cheerfully when Antonio looked at him.

The secretary stood up and started knocking on the door to the principal's office, "Mr. Smith, you have two students out here." The secretary peered into the room, "They've been out here for at least twenty minutes now."

Alfred leaned over slightly, trying to hear what was being said. He wasn't able to pick out anything, just a lot of muffled talking. Alfred sighed and sat up straight once more. He looked over as the principal came out.

Smith came out of the office, forcibly pushing Roderich in front of him, "I am not discussing this. Mr. Jones, Mr. Carreido, what are you two doing here?"

"Well obviously our teachers sent us down here." Alfred started laughing, "Why would we come down here voluntarily?" Heroes don't get told to go down to the office just for the heck of it. Honestly.

Roderich sat in a chair next to Alfred, instead of leaving, "Discussion is not ended."

Alfred looked at him confused. What was he talking about?

"You are going to be sitting there a long time." Mr. Smith shook his head, before motioning into his office, "Mr. Jones."

"You know I have a first name right? Just saying." Alfred ducked past the principal. Here it comes. One long-winded lecture, no doubt.

Alfred bounced over to the chair that was across from the principal's desk and plopped down in it. Mr. Smith stalked to his desk and sat in his own chair.

"Now what did you do to get sent down here?" Mr. Smith half-glared at Alfred.

"You want a list?" Alfred blinked. It was an honest question after all.

"What did you do…" Mr. Smith pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Welllll…I duct-taped the entire marker board…I ran tape around the entire room and stuck the test papers to them…and I also duct-taped the teacher's desk and filing cabinet." Alfred beamed cheerfully.

"You did this…why?" Smith stared at Alfred.

"Because…I can?" Alfred tilted his head. What was he supposed to say here?

"You disrupted class, ruined the test everyone was supposed to take…just because you can?" Smith looked at him in disbelief.

"Well yeah…that and…I wanted to make somebody laugh." Alfred shrugged, leaning back in the chair he was sitting in.

"Can't you tell them a joke or something?" Smith sighed.

"No. He doesn't laugh at my jokes." Alfred pouted, "He was friends with Matthew, not me. I was trying to get him to cheer up, and you know what, it worked, so I don't care what detention you give me." Alfred crossed his arms and huffed.

"You did this to cheer up a friend of your brother's?" Smith looked at him…he looked more amazed now than mad.

"Uh…yeah? Why would I do it just to annoy the teacher? That's totally Gilbert's territory." Alfred tilted his head again. And he rocked at it.

"…" Smith just looked at Alfred with a strange expression on his face.

"What?" Alfred asked.

Smith looked behind him where a white sheet of paper was taped to the wall. He reached over and marked two lines on the paper.

Alfred leaned over and stared at the paper in confusion, "What's that for?"

"Just keeping tally." Smith turned around again, "Was the room straightened up?"

"Hm? Yeah. The teacher yanked the tape down that was going around the room and I got the tape off the board. Oh. I think he was trying to unravel his desk still." Alfred rubbed the back of his head, "And there's kinda ink stains going along the floor and desks now because he knocked the bottle off of his desk."

"Fine. You go to the classroom and any duct tape remaining, throw away. Also, scrub the ink stains out off the desks. It's not going to come out of the carpet, so don't even bother with that." Smith sighed.

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Arthur sat on the edge of the bed in silence. Matthew had finally fallen asleep, still hugging the pillow to his chest. Arthur smiled and brushed the hair of out of the blonde's face. He shook his head and stood up, debating whether or not to head to class.

"_Attention counselors!"_

Arthur looked up at the speakers startled.

"_There is a medical emergency with one of the students here at the facility. The first session will be extended until further notice."_

He glanced at Matthew, but found that he didn't even stir. Well that was a relief at least. Arthur glanced up as the nurse ran in, her face rather pale.

"Oh my word…" She threw papers around on her desk until she found the file she was looking for. Before running back out she threw a glance back at Arthur, "Stay here and do not leave this room. That goes for both of you." She ran out, shutting the door behind her.

Arthur raised both eyebrows, "Well. That did not bode well." Arthur shrugged and laid down on the bed that was next to Matthew's. He closed his eyes and relaxed a bit as he felt sleeping slowly coming over him. At least he could rest now, too. And that solved his dilemma of going back to class or not even.

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><p>Well that didn't turn out that long at all. :D Yay! Kudos to those who realize what the principal is keeping tally of~ :D Reviewwwwww? :3<p> 


	15. Airhorn! and Not lonely

Yay! So there was like a week of no updates, sorry about that. I was distracted by sims and Sudoku. That new expansion pack for sims is so much fun, except for the occasional glitch that pops up, but nothing I can do about that. XD So moving on! 8D And I already posted the Awesome style, but Roderich's gonna be in here, too. I'm sure you all have noticed by now there are some conversations in one story that isn't in another even though the same character is in both. It's a bad habit of mine. =_=; at least it's not like you're reading the same thing twice, you get a little fresh point of view. XD unless I do have the direct conversation in both stories, sorry about those.

Oh and also, for some reason I mistakenly put that Arthur had a sister (don't ask why I was thinking Scotland was a girl) but I went back and switched out the chapters that mentioned a sister and have it as "brothers" instead. Just so you all don't get confused if/when they get mentioned.

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Alfred skipped out of the office, waving at Antonio as he was called in. So he had to clean up the duct tape that was left, that was no big deal. Alfred peered into the room as he passed by it, but found it was completely empty, not even the teacher was there.

"Huh…the tape is already taken off. Oh well! Easier for me then!" Alfred cheered and continued going to his third class, "I wonder why no one was in there though. Still fifteen minutes until next class." Alfred checked his watch in confusion.

He shrugged and continued on his way, looking around for any signs of his classmates but couldn't find any to ask what had happened after he left. He didn't even see Cruz. Well that was probably a good thing. Alfred laughed to himself and kept going. That had turned out totally awesome!

"But next class is History and that's completely boring…" Alfred moaned, "I always fall asleep…" Alfred stopped. So did a few other classmates. "An air horn…I should totally get an air horn and blow it when people start falling asleep. That would be awesome!" Alfred scrambled back to the athletic storage room and took out his key again.

He pushed open the door with his good hand and rummaged through the closest box. "I know I saw one in here…ah there it is!" Alfred pulled out the can and shut the door as he hurried out again. "This is gonna be totally sweet!" He hid the can in his backpack and continued down the hall, with a little bounce in his step.

Arthur would be shaking his head at Alfred right now, that or yelling at him to stop endangering his school record. Alfred grinned. But this was something he did on a daily basis with Gilbert. Find a way to disrupt the normal boring class that the teachers had scheduled. And really if they would find a way to make learning more fun, such drastic measures would not need to be made.

Alfred leaned against the wall outside his class and waited patiently. Roderich rounded the corner and started walking towards him, "Oh hey Roderich!"

"Hello." Roderich smiled at him. He looked like he was plotting something.

"What's up, man?" Alfred tilted his head.

"Nothing. I'm going to behave and not do anything during this class." Roderich huffed and leaned against the wall, "I already have one detention."

"Yeah well I got this class covered." Alfred held up his backpack and grinned, "Totally going to keep everyone awake in here."

"Oh that will help." Roderich laughed. "Hey by the way…" He lowered his voice a bit, "The school board is dropping by after lunch."

"Huh? What for? They have nothing but crap to say about our school." Alfred pouted, "They should go away and leave us alone, seriously."

"Yes, well, I intend on giving them a warm welcome." Roderich shook his head, "So far there's two of us on the welcoming committee."

"What kind of welcome are we giving them? I hope it's with a chair." Alfred snorted.

"Actually I was more thinking along the lines of tomatoes or something else soft." Roderich said, completely serious, which surprised Alfred.

"Food fight!" Alfred grinned, eyes sparkling, "Count me in for this committee!" Alfred looked towards the door as the bell rang and the students started mingling out. "Time for the neverending lectures." Alfred rolled his eyes at Roderich, who smiled in return.

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Arthur tossed and turned on the mattress. How long were they going to be waiting in here? He sat up and looked over at Matthew. At least he was sleeping peacefully. Arthur grabbed his own pillow and buried his face in it. But now _he_ couldn't sleep.

Arthur rolled over on his side and watched Matthew. There were definite lines under his eyes from lack of sleep. _'I wonder how long he's been having problems sleeping?'_ Arthur blinked in concern but shook his head. It wasn't something to worry about now. Hopefully it would go away after they left the facility they were now in…once they learned to deal with their "emotional issues".

Arthur huffed and rolled onto his back, crossing his arms and glaring at the ceiling. So what if he did only talk to Roderich during school, usually. That just meant he had a higher standard of friends than other people did! And he most certainly was _not_ lonely, even though Roderich wasn't the best at keeping anyone company, and solely believed that people should be able to live on their own just fine.

Arthur sighed and closed his eyes. No point in even thinking about this. It was best to just sleep. His mind drifted to Lovino for some reason, wondering how the Italian was doing in class. Gilbert was no long in the conference room, according to Matthew, and they were both in the nurse station. _'I wonder if Lovino is the only one in class then?'_ Arthur shook his head. Oh come to think of it, he never did ask how Matthew knew that Gilbert was out of the conference room. But he probably didn't head to class anyway depending on what time it was. Arthur opened one eye to glance at the clock. They should be in their second class by now.

Arthur looked at his class schedule. He was supposed to be in room 21 right now. Arthur shrugged and put the paper back in his pocket. Well no matter. Emergencies had to be taken care of first. Arthur settled himself under the blankets and attempted to fall asleep.

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><p>This one turned out shorter than the Awesome style and Canadian style, but Gilbert and Matthew ended up doing more than Arthur. XD Anyway, leave me a review? 8D (yes you ninja people)<p> 


	16. Screw this and Damn it Alfred!

Well. Looks like I'm going to be spending more time in bed than I thought. I got really dizzy when I tried walking around last night. =_= So looks like my bedroom is going to be the four walls of my life for the next few days until I can get rid of this bug. Yippee. On the brighter note, it means more time for updating.

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Alfred tapped his pencil on the top of his binder. His notebook lay open next to it, but the pages were all blank. He never bothered taking notes during class. He usually just copied them from Arthur. Alfred frowned. He looked down at the notebook again. If he ever had any hopes for passing the class, he really should start writing this down. But then again…how was he supposed to concentrate on the class when the thoughts of what would happen after lunch were just so much more exciting?

Alfred glanced around the room. Some heads were beginning to drop, and he was rather tempted to use the airhorn that was sitting on his lap, but he would wait a while longer. His blue gaze shifted back to Roderich, who looked up at the front of the room now and then while writing on a paper. He must still be taking notes. Alfred glanced down at his own empty notebook. Alfred dug around in his binder and pulled out his pen before starting to write on the paper. He glanced at the half-written sentence before drawing scribbles all over the page and dropping the pen on top of the notebook. Screw that.

He looked at the side of the can on the airhorn before using it and sending a shrill noise throughout the classroom. Alfred grinned seeing everyone jump, though he had to admit he did jump a bit, too. He didn't expect it to be so LOUD. Alfred hid the airhorn again and smiled as the teacher turned around.

"Who just did that?" The teacher turned to look around the room in annoyance, "I know that was an airhorn!"

"Who's stupid enough to bring an airhorn to class?"Alfred laughed, much to the amusement of the classmate sitting in front of him.

The teacher glared around the room, but didn't get an answer and so she turned back to the powerpoint. Was this all they taught how to do in college? Alfred tilted his head. So many of his teachers seemed to be doing these stupid presentations lately. He was half-wondering if the teachers weren't trying to give them powerpoint poisoning or something. Alfred shook his head and returned his gaze to the notebook paper that he had drawn black scribbles over. Alfred watched as the teacher began walking around the room, peering at the papers that the students were writing on. She raised both eyebrows at the notebook that Alfred had in front of him.

"Everything okay here?" She asked, keeping her voice low.

"Just dandy." Alfred smiled cheerfully at her. She didn't look like she believed him but kept walking.

Alfred flipped over to a blank piece of paper, and was about to start writing again when he started drawing black scribbles all over his notebook again. He half-wished the hand he had broken would have been his writing hand. At least then he'd have an excuse to not take notes. Alfred sighed and laid his head down on his binder. This class was proving to drag on for a long time. _'Time flies when you're having fun.'_ Alfred made a face and glanced around him. The classmates around him were all keeping up the appearance of writing notes.

Alfred looked at the notebook paper that he had scribbled on. He sighed heavily, glancing around the room again and noticed the teacher was standing next to Roderich's desk. His eyes met Roderich for a moment but Alfred looked away again. This was not good. Alfred looked down at the notebook again. The black scribbles seemed to be moving on their own. Alfred tilted his head slightly, staring at the paper before shoving the notebook away from him. It clattered to the floor, but somehow only those sitting around him noticed.

"Alfred, are you okay?" Feliks, who was sitting to his left, leaned over.

Alfred didn't answer. He just looked at the notebook that was laying on the floor. He leaned over his desk as if he was going to pick it up, but he slipped the airhorn into his backpack instead. If the only good the powerpoints were doing was reminding him of something he didn't want to remember, then he was OUT OF HERE. Alfred grabbed the notebook and stood up abruptly, but left everything on his desk as he left the classroom.

Alfred quickly walked down the hall, glancing over his shoulder, but found to his relief he wasn't being followed by anyone. Alfred shook his head and sped up his pace, rounding the corner and running into somebody who had been coming from the opposite direction.

"Ach, sorry!"

Alfred blinked at the blonde in front of him. What was his name again? Antonio sits with this guy at lunch…oh that's right.

"My fault, Ludwig. Don't worry about it." Alfred waved it off.

Ludwig tilted his head slightly, "Are you okay?"

"Huh? I'm fine." Alfred blinked at him, "Why, don't I look it?"

"No. You look like you're about to fall over." Ludwig said flatly.

"Dude. I'm fine. I'm not about to fall over." Alfred laughed before quickly brushing by him, "Anyway, I gotta go."

Alfred quickly hurried down the hall, still aware of Ludwig's gaze on his back. _'That guy is creepy!'_ He turned the first corner he came to and broke into a run, not caring where he was going to end up. Screw class. _'I totally left my books back there.'_ Alfred shook his head and kept going, running up the stairs that led to the roof. He pushed open the door and quickly closed it behind him after making sure no one else was there.

Slumping against the railing, Alfred looked over the schoolyard with a heavy sigh. "So much more peaceful up here…" He stared out across the grounds, watching cars pass by on the road.

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Arthur tossed and turned on the bed. This definitely was not to be called a mattress in this lifetime or any lifetime. How was anyone supposed to sleep on this thing? He looked over at Matthew and discovered he must have been asleep at some point, because Matthew was now sleeping while sitting up. Arthur raised both eyebrows. How was that sleeping position even the least bit comfortable?

Arthur rolled over and jumped when he heard his cell phone ringing. "Who the bloody hell is calling me?" Arthur yanked out his cell and stared at the caller ID blankly. "Uh…I don't think I should pick this up." He carefully set the phone on the stand beside his bed and watched as the caller ID continued flashing. Why would Alfred even be calling his phone? Unless he had dialed the number by accident. Arthur sat up and rested his head against the wall, watching as the phone stopped ringing and went to voicemail. He leaned over and picked it up again, a little curious to see if Alfred would actually leave a voicemail.

"But why would he call my cell phone? We're supposed to be 'dead'…" Arthur tilted his head in confusion. This made absolutely no sense. The only reason Arthur could come up with is that Alfred used the wrong speed dial on his phone…but…that wouldn't explain the voice mail he now had flashing on his phone.

Arthur hesitated, glancing over at Matthew to make sure he was still sleeping before flipping open his phone and held it up to his ear, listening to the voicemail.

"_Hey Arthur! It's Alfred, you probably think I'm crazy calling your phone…uh…if you're even aware of it. But I remember a counselor telling me it wouldn't hurt to talk to someone even if they weren't there anymore, so I'm going to be taking up some time in your voicemailbox."_

Arthur laid back down, still holding the phone to his ear, smiling slightly. At least he had something to cheer him up.

"_So I had a sleepover at Antonio's house last night! He let me sleep on his bed, and took the air mattress. That thing did not look comfortable at all, I kinda felt bad. But I really didn't have anyone else to call to go with me to the hospital."_

Why the bloody hell did he go to the hospital? Arthur stared at the phone in disbelief.

"_I kinda punched a wall because my voice of reason was being mean. So now my hand is totally broken."_

"IDIOT." Arthur snapped at the phone, even though Alfred couldn't hear him.

"_I guess it'll heal at some point, as long as I don't punch something again. I dented the wall at least, so at least it's not broken for nothing. I know if you're somehow listening to this you're probably wondering why I'm not in class right now…"_

Arthur looked at the clock on the wall, startled, come to think of it, they were supposed to be in their third class at school.

"_Yeah well I kinda left in the middle of it. I tried taking notes for once…but I ended up just scribbling on the paper 'cuz I always got the notes from you. I guess I'm not used to writing. I should have punched the wall with my writing hand. At least then I'd have an excuse."_

Arthur winced at the forced laugh that came after the sentence. He was half-tempted to call Alfred and yell at him, but then again, he wasn't allowed to. Alfred always watched those shows where the afterlife would call with the phone though. Alfred was certainly gullible enough to believe he was talking to a ghost, and would probably fling his phone away from him.

"_So, instead of being in class I'm up on the roof."_

"You're what?" Arthur gaped at the phone.

"_It's a nice view up here! At least it's sunny today and not raining. Otherwise being up here would totally suck more than being in class. I'd be freaking SOAKED."_

"I should hope your common sense would tell you to be elsewhere then." Arthur grumbled.

"_So I'm just standing up here talking to myself and a dead person's voicemail. I don't even know why I'm calling, I guess I thought it would help me feel better. I'm kinda kicking myself for not paying more attention to you and Mattie. You can give him a hug for me, can't you?"_

Arthur winced. Alfred sounded like he was close to tears. That's it. Not allowed to call or not, Arthur was not about to let Alfred become depressed now. Arthur stopped the voicemail and went through his contacts, trying to find Alfred's number. Where the heck was it at. Oh. Right. Alfred put it in under Resident Hero. Arthur stuck his tongue out at the contact name before dialing the number.

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><p>8D And there we go~ Another update is at its end. Leave me a review, this includes you ninja people. *shakes fist*<p> 


	17. Thanks Iggy! and Thanks Alfred

Thank you to all my ninjas who reviewed finally~ 8D I got word from one of my regular reviewers that the cliffhanger would distract from class, so I decided I should probably post as soon as possible. XD (whether or not the reviewer got over that, I have no clue) So uh…I shall attempt to make this not short. And as un-confusing as possible. :D

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Alfred sat on the roof of the school building, his back resting up against the railing that went around the edges. This was a fun day at least. Right up until now. Alfred shook his head and sent off a text to the first person he could think of

_**Just texting you cuz I really don't have anything else to do. I'm up on the roof at the moment. Oh, I got your number from Mattie at some point, I really don't remember when though. What's up? Hope your class is going better than mine did.**_

'_Why do I even have his number in my phone? I don't remember why I asked Mattie for it…oh well. Someone to talk to.'_ Alfred leaned his head back against the railing.

_**I'm in the office for punching someone. Does that answer your question?**_

Alfred stared at his phone blankly. He thought Cruz had put any fighting behind him, but apparently not. Well when someone gets mad, they have to take it out on something! Alfred looked at his own bandaged hand, "Yeah and I'm proof of that." He typed out a response with his good hand and sent it back again: _**Who the heck did you punch?**_

_**Stupid ex.**_

…oh. That relationship didn't last long. Alfred remembered Matthew mentioning about it in passing, but that was only because Alfred asked why he suddenly stopped walking with Cruz after school. Alfred blinked, not quite sure how to respond to it. "Hm? Oh hey my phone is ringing, yay! It's…AH!" Alfred dropped his phone and let it lay on the rooftop, still ringing.

Waiting a minute to recover and catch his breath, Alfred leaned over and typed in a message to Cruz, panicking slightly: _**My phone is ringing.**_

_**So answer it.**_

That was obviously a typical Cruz response. Alfred stuck his tongue out at the phone. It was still ringing. How many rings until it goes to voicemail again? _**Dude. I'm not answering it. Not with that Caller ID popping up.**_

_**It might be important, but whatever. Go ahead and ignore it then. I'm about to get called into the office, so don't send me a message. I'm not getting in trouble for having my phone on.**_

Alfred whimpered, "Don't leave me alone with a ghost calling my phone damn it!" He quickly fired off a response, hoping Cruz would respond anyway. _**THERE'S A GHOST CALLING ME.**_

Alfred dropped the phone again and leaned over only when it stopped ringing. "No voicemail…" Alfred let out a quiet sigh of relief, "It was probably just Peter messing with Arthur's phone…" He nodded and leaned back again. But his phone started ringing again. Alfred leaned over and looked at the caller ID, "…I don't wanna answer that…but…maybe by some chance he got my voicemail in the afterlife?" Alfred picked up the phone hesitantly, "Okay...possible outcomes of this. Peter with Arthur's phone, prank-calling me which would be really rude and I would be so telling his parents. It's Arthur's ghost calling me because either he got my voicemail or he has a message from beyond the grave. The only option that isn't scary is the first one!" Alfred cried, holding the phone at arm's-length away from him.

"Heroes are not scared of ghosts!" Alfred flipped his phone open, "….." He listened quietly to the silence on the other end.

.

.

Arthur glared at his phone but tried redialing again. "Give me a break, why the bloody hell is he not picking up his damn phone? He obviously has it with him!" He waited impatiently, listening to it ring, he was about to hang up when he heard the unmistakable click from the other end of the call being received. "…" _'Well now what do I say?'_

"_H-hello?"_

Some self-proclaimed hero. He's shaking and you can hear it in his voice.

"Well what kind of hero would answer the phone sounding like that?" Arthur snapped at the phone.

"_I sound like myself! What the heck are you talking about?"_

"You sound like you're shaking in a ball of fear." Arthur retorted.

"…_.I am not."_

"You hesitated." Arthur couldn't resist the teasing remark.

"_No I did not! I am not scared of a ghost calling my phone~!"_

Arthur rolled his eyes. Alfred really was gullible enough to believe a ghost was calling him. "Sure you're not, you go right ahead and keep telling yourself that."

.

.

"I am not scared!" Alfred retorted into the phone. He wasn't! It was just getting slightly chilly up here with that wind! Even though the flag isn't moving at all…

"…"

'_Now he's quiet…'_ Alfred hesitated, "So…why is a ghost calling my phone anyway?"

"_Why is a person who's alive calling mine?"_

"Uh…no reason. I just didn't have anyone to talk to is all, so I thought I would listen to the sound of your voice on your voicemail~" Alfred laughed nervously. That did not sound believable at all.

"_So how's your broken hand, Alfred?"_

'…_I guess…he listened to the voicemail…'_ "Uh…kinda hurting. But I'm good." Alfred waved it around nonchalantly, "No big deal, athletes are used to pain~"

"_Right. That's why you wanted someone to go to the hospital with you."_

Alfred pouted, "I don't like hospitals, give me a break."

"_You already have one."_

"Dude, that wasn't even funny." Alfred sniffled, "That hurt when I punched the wall."

"_WELL THEN MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE PUNCHED IT."_

"It made me feel better~" Alfred laughed.

"_Oh it did. And yet you still call my phone."_

"…_..who are you talking to?"_

"_Oh! No one. Just an idiot."_

Alfred stared at the phone blankly, "Huh? Was that Mattie?"

"…_eh…I'm going back to sleep then."_

"_I'll try to be quiet, sorry."_

"You all sleep in the afterlife, too, huh?" Alfred laughed.

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'_HE IS THE MOST GULLIBLE IDIOT I HAVE EVER MET IN MY LIFE.'_ Arthur glared at the phone. Matthew had rolled over and seemed to be fast asleep once more.

"Well is there something else to be doing?" Arthur said, keeping his voice down this time, "Other than reflecting."

"_Whatcha reflecting on?"_

"Mostly the time spent with an idiot." Arthur retorted.

"_I'm not an idiot…"_

"Are you pouting?"

"_I am not."_

"You are such a liar. I can practically see the pout through the phone." Arthur couldn't help but laugh, "You really are helpless aren't you?"

"_I am not helpless! I'm a hero! I help people!"_

"Well then do yourself a favor and help yourself first." Arthur sighed, "Because honestly, spending time on the roof is not going to do a thing for your thoughts."

"_Yeah…I'm kinda getting that already."_

"Just don't go jumping off the roof." Arthur slapped a hand to his forehead.

"_Nah, I won't. I can't do that to mom and dad. As much as I wanna see you guys again I'll stay here."_

Arthur blinked in surprise, "You want to see us again?"

"…_why else would I call your phone? Did you not listen to the whole voicemail?"_

"No I didn't." Arthur sighed, "Apparently I should."

"…_Uh…don't. Save me the embarrassment please."_

Arthur looked at the phone with raised eyebrows, "Well now I'm definitely going to listen to it."

.

.

"Dooooon't!" Alfred panicked, "I sound like an idiot~"

"…_Alfred."_

"I know. I'm talking to a ghost on a cell phone. Can't get much more idiotic." Alfred sighed.

"_Actually, I was about to say you're not an idiot."_

"I'm not?" Alfred perked up instantly, "Yay~ Thanks Iggy!"

"_Do not call me that. I don't even know how you got that out of my name."_

"Arthur was so hard to pronounce when we were kids." Alfred pouted, "It stuck. And besides, it's cuter than Arthur!"

"…_If you ever call me cute again so help me I am going to slap you upside the head."_

Alfred quickly looked around him in a panic, "Can you do that?"

"_I don't care if I have to wait until the next time I see you, I will keep a running tally of how many slaps I owe you."_

"Do something else!" Alfred cried, "I don't wanna get a bunch of slaps to the back of my head when I die!"

"_Geez…"_

Alfred pouted, "…Hey Arthur?"

"_Stop pouting Alfred. What?"_

"…I'm not pouting." Alfred reddened a bit.

"_Don't start this argument again. What?"_

"That person you said you liked, did they really not notice you?" Alfred leaned back against the railing again.

"…_why are you even asking me that? It's not something I want to talk about."_

"I don't know why I asked." Alfred sighed, "Anyway, lunch is going to be starting soon, I should probably go."

"_You'll skip class but you'll go to lunch. How heroic of you."_

Alfred stuck his tongue out at the phone, "Heroes need to eat, too!"

"_Yes, yes. Oh by the way, Matthew's doing fine. Don't worry about him, alright?"_

Alfred stood up and was walking across the roof but stopped and smiled, "Thanks Iggy!"

"_Don't call me that I said!"_

"Arthur will always be the cute Iggy to me!" Alfred laughed and hurried through the door as the bell rang.

"_Two slaps I owe you…"_

"Please don't keep track. That's going to be a running tally for sure." Alfred whimpered and hurried down the stairs, "I better go before people give me weird looks for talking on my cell phone during school."

"_Especially to a dead person. Enjoy your lunch Alfred."_

"I will! Bye!" Alfred waited until Arthur hung up before ending the call, "Alright, feeling so much better now!" He pumped both fists in the air and ran out the door at the bottom of the steps.

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><p>8D There we go! It didn't turn out too confusing I hope! Leave me a review~ :D<p> 


	18. Best day EVER and Shut up Allistor

Alright it is now Lunchtime for those at school, and (unfortunately for them) back to class for Arthur and Matthew~

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><p>.<p>

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Alfred bounded down the remaining steps and ran back through the hallway to get to the classroom where he had left his books behind. "I should have just taken my crap with me!" He tossed everything in his backpack, and grabbed the strap with his good hand before hurrying out the door, not even bothering to glance around the classroom.

As he hurried through the hall, his teacher passed by him carrying a large stack of papers. She seemed to be caught up in her own little world though, because she kept going and didn't say a word to him about missing the class period. _'Oh well. Less getting in trouble means a cleaner record for when our major prank comes off after lunch!'_ Alfred grinned to himself and continued his hasty pace.

He paused momentarily by his locker to put everything in it, no point in carrying it all to lunch when there was a study hall right after anyhow! Realizing he had left the airhorn in side of it, Alfred lay the airhorn carefully on the top shelf before closing the door. "Now it's time to eat!" Alfred practically skipped down the hall towards the cafeteria, hoping there wouldn't be any lines. He barely glanced at the menu that was hanging above the door before heading straight for the hot sandwich line. No thinking necessary when he saw '_Bacon Cheeseburger'_ on the menu. Today was definitely turning out to be a good day. First class was awesome, second class was hilarious, third class…well he got to talk to Arthur's ghost on the phone so that didn't turn out so bad, and now he got a bacon cheeseburger for lunch! This was so turning out to be a good day!

Alfred waited in line, bouncing up and down in anticipation. Fortunately the line was moving fast, so he didn't have to wait too long, and he spotted where Antonio and Roderich were already sitting from his vantage point. Perfect. Along the back wall where most people would leave them alone.

Alfred took his tray and gave a hopeful look to the lady behind the counter, who just sighed and placed another burger on his tray.

"Two good?"

"Two's perfect~" Alfred smiled happily and continued moving, making sure to get two scoops of potatoes as well. _'Yes! This day is sweet!'_ Alfred made his way over to the table, and instantly plopped down in the empty seat to the left of Roderich. He noticed that a box sat on the seat to the right of Roderich, but decided to hold off on asking, and instead focus on eating.

"Oh there you are. I was looking for you." Roderich gave him what Alfred guessed was meant to be a glare, "Where on earth did you go during last class?"

"Huh? Oh sorry. Just felt the need to get the heck out of there. It's all good, I'm feeling better." Alfred waved his hand around nonchalantly. No point in telling them that he just got a phone call from a ghost that completely cheered him. They would think he was absolutely crazy.

Alfred munched on one of his burgers, glancing at the notebook that Roderich was reading over, "Is that the list of stuff?" He leaned over slightly, trying not to chew too loudly in Roderich's ear.

"Yes. We have most of it so far…" Roderich tapped his pen at different items listed on the paper.

Alfred read over the list, continuing to take another bite while reading, "Oh I can get the arrows. Do we need bows, too?" Alfred blinked. That was probably a rather stupid question to ask, but better safe than sorry!

"What the heck are you guys doing?" Antonio looked like he was choking on soup, how does someone do that anyway? And why bother using a spoon at all? Just pick up the bowl and drink it!

"Plotting." Roderich smiled, "Bows would be helpful, unless you know of some other way to make the arrows fly through the air."

Alfred was practically bouncing up and down in his seat in anticipation. The word 'plotting' just made it sound so much cooler than it already was! "Bow and arrows, check." Alfred smiled, "I got the key to the equipment room, still."

"Good. That will come in handy." Roderich moved his pen down the paper, "Hm….then…I think we're set."

"Sweet! Hey Antonio, you're gonna help us pull this off, right?" Alfred looked over at him, his eyes sparkling hopefully. There was no way Antonio would say no to this! Not after this morning!

"Uh…" Antonio looked at Alfred, much to Alfred's surprise, he seemed to be hesitating, "Is this something that's going to get me in trouble?"

"That would depend." Roderich closed his notebook and set it on his lap, but Alfred noticed he shifted it over on top of the box that sat next to him.

"On what?" Antonio stared at Roderich.

Alfred took another bite of his burger and silently hoped that Antonio would be convinced enough to join them.

"On how fast you run." Cruz sat two seats away on Roderich's right.

Alfred perked up a bit, Roderich must have been talking about Cruz when he mentioned there were two on the committee earlier. This was going to be epic if they could pull it off, even more epic if they could pull it off without getting caught.

"Oh this is sounding like a heist and a half." Antonio commented before looking at his tray.

Alfred continued eating, completely oblivious to the fact that Antonio was staring at his empty tray, "Dude it's gonna be awesome! You totally gotta join up with us!"

"Yeah…but…I narrowly missed out on detention the first time I was in the office…" Antonio commented, staring off into space now.

Alfred pouted a bit, but finished off his burger. He hadn't even noticed when he started eating the second one. Oh well. He gulped down both servings of potatoes in less than a minute.

"Oh, look at it this way, your punishment if we get caught is going to be absolutely nothing compared to mine for putting it together in the first place." Roderich spoke up.

Antonio tapped his spoon against his plate a couple times, looking thoughtful for a moment, before agreeing, "Sure, why not. Might as well have some fun before the day is over."

'_YES!'_ Alfred let out a mental cheer of happiness and finished off his drink.

Roderich smiled, "I appreciate the help. Are we all done then?" He looked back and forth between everyone's trays.

"I am." Alfred smiled cheerfully, setting his empty can down.

"I guess so." Antonio took one last gulp from his bottle before putting it down.

"Yeah." Cruz shrugged and twisted his own plastic bottle in his hands.

Roderich glanced over at Cruz, "Good, then we're off to the student council room. Oh, Antonio, bring that bucket with you." Roderich motioned to the yellow bucket, that somehow Alfred had completely missed noticing until now.

'_What are we doing with a bucket?' _Alfred blinked but shrugged it off.

"Sure. Should I just put the stack of papers in here?" Antonio glanced inside.

Alfred tilted his head at the mention of papers, he was suddenly reminded of his teacher hurrying through the hallway carrying a stack. _'Nah. Not connected. There's no way a teacher would be helping us out with this.'_

"That'll work. And save me from carrying it." Roderich smiled.

"Then we're off!" Alfred grinned and stood up, picking up his tray. _'I cannot wait for this! It's going to be epically amazing!'_ Gilbert would want to be a part of this if he were here. Alfred sighed at the thought of the albino but shook his head quickly. No point in getting depressed now! Especially not after that cheer-up talk he just had from Arthur…'s ghost. Not all ghosts were scary after all!

"Off to get ourselves in major trouble…" Cruz grumbled, standing up and heading for the trash can.

'_Spoilsport.'_ Alfred stuck his tongue out at Cruz's back but followed along behind him.

"Oh what's life without a little fun in it?" Roderich followed along behind Alfred.

Alfred turned after throwing his trash out and discovered that Roderich was balancing his and Antonio's tray on top of his notebook and box. He grinned and took the trays off, dumping them in the trashcan for Roderich.

"Thank you." Roderich commented, smiling a bit before heading for the doors.

"No problem at all! Your hands were kinda full." Alfred laughed. _'And no way he would have managed that one his own!'_ Alfred glanced at the box that Roderich was carrying, "What's in the box anyway?"

Roderich waited until they were outside the cafeteria before answering, "Balloons."

"Yay! We get to throw water balloons?" Alfred looked at Roderich, his eyes sparkling again.

"Indeed." Roderich smiled.

'_Today is the BEST DAY EVER!'_ Alfred spotted Antonio pushing the yellow bucket further up the hall and grinned.

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Arthur held the phone in his hand, looking at the silent device. He should listen to the voicemail, he knew that, but at the same time…that stupid announcement…

"_Attention all counselors and students, the medical emergency is officially over, and students can resume their scheduled classes! All counselors and students should report to their third class! I repeat, all counselors and students should report to their third class!" *click*_

Arthur sighed heavily. So much for listening to it now. He looked over at Matthew and frowned. He was still sleeping. Arthur looked over at the nurse who came in, "Should we leave him be?"

"…Yes, might as well. He needs to sleep, his eyes had really dark circles under them." The nurse shook her head, "I'll hold him here until he wakes up at least."

Arthur nodded and headed out the door, "Then I'm off." He took out his paper and glanced at it, "Room…eleven. Oh great. That's the slideshow room." Arthur rolled his eyes and put the paper back in his pocket. At least he wouldn't be by himself in the class.

…Or maybe he was. Arthur sat at the same desk he was in the day before. Gilbert's desk remained empty, as did Lovino's. And of course the desk behind Arthur was Matthew's and he was down at the nurse station still. Arthur looked at Gilbert's and Lovino's empty desks with a frown. _'Where are they at? I hope one of them wasn't the emergency!'_

Arthur sighed and jumped when he felt his phone buzzing again, "Oh, _now who?_" Arthur growled and took out the phone, glaring at the name before blinking, "Huh? Allistor?"

"Is a family member calling?" The teacher looked over.

"Yes…my brother is…" Arthur made a face.

"Oh go ahead and take it in the hall. Calls from family are allowed!" The teacher smiled happily.

"…" Arthur walked out into the hallway that was slowly becoming empty as students rushed to their class, "But…I don't know if he knows I'm alive…" Arthur turned his head as he heard the door shut. "Oh great." He sighed heavily but answered anyway, "Hello…"

"…"

"Hello? Is someone there?" Arthur looked at the phone screen before holding it up to his ear again.

"…_..Aye…I wasn't really expecting someone to answer this…"_

Arthur felt his face grow hot. Well that answered _that_ question, "Yes, well, someone did answer. Did you want something?"

"…_who might this be?"_

Arthur made a face, his brother sounded as if he wasn't exactly sure who he was talking to, "Allistor, come off of whatever cloud you're sitting on, who do you think is going to answer my phone?"

"…_Peter playing a joke. And a very not funny one that's going to get him slammed on the top of the head when I get home."_

Arthur held the phone at arm's length away from him, barely resisting the urge to yell at it, "This is NOT Peter, Allistor."

"_Well then who the hell is it?"_

Arthur slapped the palm of his free hand to his forehead, "You dialed my cell phone number, Allistor. This is Arthur speaking."

"…_this is a joke, right? Arthur is six feet under last time I checked."_

"Oh am I? This doesn't look like six feet under." Arthur looked around him. _'I probably should not have said that.'_

"…_if you ain't dead then where the heck are ye?"_

Sometimes Allistor's accent would come through in his speaking voice. Arthur sighed, "I can't say where I'm at. It's something for school."

"_The school thinks you're dead, too."_

"I'm well aware of that. Mission for change or whatever it was called." Arthur leaned up against the wall. Was he even allowed to be saying this?

"…_oh. So you're not dead, and yet the principal made us believe you were. How nice."_

Arthur rolled his eyes, "Mom and dad made you believe I was dead. The principal clearly stated it was up to them whether or not to tell you, and I am probably going to get in trouble for telling you now."

"…_Remind me to thank them when you get the hell home."_

Arthur looked at the phone, "I do not know when that is going to be…"

"…_How long are they planning on keeping you there?"_

"Shouldn't you be in school? And I don't know how long I'm going to be here. However long it takes the change that they want in the school to take place? But unfortunately our behavior needs to change as well. I don't know which one will come first."

"_I am in school for your information. It's lunchtime. Any change coming to this school is going to take a bloody long time. …brother, is something wrong with your behavior?"_

Arthur winced. He should have known better than to say that, "Uh…no."

"…_That letter was yours, wasn't it? The one the principal read?"_

"Unfortunately." Arthur sighed again, "I wrote that, yes."

"…_so there is something wrong? What is wrong with wee brother?"_

"Nothing. I'm fine." Arthur felt his face growing hot once more.

"_I'm not believing that for an instant."_

"You never believed anything else I said either!" Arthur barely avoided yelling into the mouthpiece of the phone, and just narrowly kept his voice down so the class wouldn't hear him.

"_Problem number one."_

"You're provoking me on purpose, aren't you." Arthur growled, stating it rather than asking it as a question.

"_I do not call it provoking. I call it finding out what's wrong with wee brother through means other than direct questioning."_

"…I call it I'm hanging up the phone." Arthur snapped, "I'm supposed to be in class right now, it's not lunchtime here."

"…_don't you dare hang up."_

Arthur almost dropped the phone, surprised by the sudden temper change in his brother's voice. How the redhead could go from calm to seething in less than a second was a little frightening, "Allistor, brother of mine. There is nothing you can do to stop me from hanging up this phone. We are _miles_ away from each other, and there is no way your hand can reach mine. Good day." He ended the call, ignoring the cursing from the other end that sounded as a result of what he had said.

Arthur pocketed his phone and opened the door, closing it quietly as to not interrupt the powerpoint. He made his way back to his seat and sat down, folding his hands together on top of his desk. _'Definitely next time be more careful about answering the phone. There might be another idiot on the other end.'_

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><p>XD I couldn't resist putting one of Arthur's brothers in here. Also saves me from describing another boring powerpoint presentation. =w= Sooo…Matthew not here…yet. XD Review~ You too ex-ninjas whom I love~ ...this chapter was long. long. long. XD<p> 


	19. RUN FOR IT and PAY ATTENTION

Dear Fekete: Allistor is indeed Scotland. :3 He's still in high school, though he is a senior while Arthur is a Sopomore. :3 And I love you, too. XD Ex-ninjas are always loved~

Oh and by the way guys: I hate to say this but, if I stop updating for a while, please don't think I gave up on the story. =w=; More than likely I wound up in the hospital. The bug I have is going around and it's what happened to my coworker's daughter because an infection set in. So I'm short one infection (thankfully) of being somewhere without internet access. Just a warning for you all. :3 Moving on to happier things~ XD

_Italics-_ memory, k? Seemed the easiest and least repetitive way to do this chapter. Prepare for long-ness.

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><p>.<p>

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Alfred peered down the main hall that led to the lobby where the front doors were. So far so good. No one in sight. He glanced up and down the adjoining hallways. Both clear. "This is totally awesome~" Alfred whispered to himself, barely containing his excitement. The principal was already outside in the courtyard, awaiting the arrival of the school board.

Alfred looked up at the clock, according to what Roderich had said, the school board would be arriving at noon. Provided they weren't delayed. Alfred grinned and dragged the rope he had snagged from the Athletic Storage room and roped off both hallways that led to the lobby. No one should be coming this way anyhow, but just to be on the safe side~

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"_Make sure that no student interrupts what you're doing. I will take care of the teachers. Even if I have to lock them in that lounge they always sit in at lunch time." Roderich huffed and pushed the yellow bucket over to Alfred, "And do it fast. Before the school board gets here."_

_._

Alfred hung up signs he had grabbed from a janitor's office on the way down and clipped them to the yellow rope. "No problem. No students coming through here." He tipped the yellow bucket over, spilling the soapy water all over the floor of the main lobby. "This is gonna be so fun!" He snatched the mop and spun around in circles, sending the soapy water everywhere.

"Fifteen minutes to get this the slippiest I can get it. No problemo~" Alfred grinned and scooted the carpets out of the way. No point in having them where they could be used for drying feet off. He nudged them under the trophy cabinet and continued making the floor slick.

After deciding it was definitely skate-worthy, Alfred slid over to the ropes and ducked under, drying his shoes off with paper towels before plopping the wadded up towels in the now-empty bucket. "Alright. Lobby, check." He glanced at his watch, "Still five minutes to go." He looked up and saw the principal outside, still waiting, "Okay! Time to run!" Alfred grabbed the handle of the bucket and ran, "That bell's gonna ring soon~" He pushed the bucket into the janitor's closet, tossing the mop inside as well before shutting the door. "Gotta get to the next station~" He sprinted up the five steps that were on the way to the conference room where the school board was planning on having their meeting with the principal.

He hurried inside and shut the door behind him, glancing around several times to make sure there wasn't someone already occupying the room. "Safe." He pushed himself off the door and grabbed the cardboard box that was sitting on the floor waiting for him.

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_"The conference room is just up the short set of stairs down the right hall from the lobby. They're going to be using that to hold their meeting with our principal. Do what you can to make their work difficult. Also, I will be leaving the box of water balloons there in the room. If you could fill them up, Antonio will be by to pick them up." Roderich instructed._

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"This is gonna be so worth the punishment." Alfred dumped the box upside down on the side counter in the room, right next to the sink. "Water balloon time!" He quickly went to work filling the balloons with water, while outside in the hall, the school bell rang loudly. "Quarter til noon…gotta hurry up…" Alfred filled up a pitcher with water and set it carefully on the top of the door. "I pity whoever is coming first in here." He grinned and backed up a bit. "Pitcher set, water balloons set." He carefully placed all the water balloons back in the box and heaved the box over to the corner of the room, where it was safely out of sight, and conveniently next to the only other door in the room. "I'm ready for this." He leaned against the counter, "Still got ten minutes until they arrive…" Alfred randomly pulled open a drawer and spotted a refill container of glue. "…" He picked up the container and dumped it all over the floor just inside the door. "I'm never going to hear the end of this if we get caught. Oh well." He dumped it over all the chair and tossed the bottle into the trash can. "Next~"

Alfred looked around the room, both hands resting on his hips. "Door check…floor check…chairs check." There was a soft tapping on the second door, and Alfred scurried over. He pulled open the door just far enough to see Antonio on the other side and grinned, "Here you go." He pushed the box out with his foot and closed the door again. "Balloon delivery, check!"

Alfred peered out the window, he couldn't see anything from this vantage point. But they still had five minutes left to go until noon. "Let's see…I got the lobby…I got the conference room…" He opened the door cautiously and peered out. No one was in sight. A small idea formed in his head and he grabbed the rope he had leftover from the lobby. Alfred grinned and pulled open the storage closet that was across the hall. He attached it to the first thing he saw near the floor and shut the door carefully so he didn't sever the rope. Stringing it across the hall, just high enough off the floor so someone would trip over it if they didn't see it first, Alfred tied it to a table leg. He stood up and leaned on the table, "I wonder why this is here anyway?" He glanced at it, "Meh. Oh well." Alfred nodded and hurried down the hall, away from the conference room and lobby, "Run away~"

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_"Once that is done, prepare to run very fast. I'm sure the school board is not going to be at all happy with the lobby already, and you're going to need to stay ahead of them. If you start hearing voices, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction."_

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He could hear yelling from outside and guessed that the school board had shown up, which meant the upstairs assault had started. "This is going to be the most epic day. EVER!" Alfred ran up the stairs, two at a time, and ducked under the rope that ran across the top of the stairs. "Eesh that was close, whose idea was that one?" He looked at the rope blankly. Sitting right up against the wall was a bucket of water. "Well hello, if that's not an open invitation I don't know what is. This is the only stairwell to get to the second floor, too." Alfred lay low to the floor, hiding behind the bucket, waiting for the first person to come into sight.

He could hear the voices getting louder…sounded like they were just about…yup. Falling flat on their faces. Alfred grinned. That rope trick worked! He peered up over the bucket and spotted the first person running for the stairs, looking seething mad. "Hehehehee…" Alfred edged the bucket over, "Bye bye!" He tipped the bucket, sending water spilling down the steps. He peered around the bucket and watched as the school board member was sent toppling back down the stairs, and lay at the bottom cursing. "Well. At least he wasn't hurt."

The second board member came into view and started charging up the stairs, careful to avoid the water spill. Alfred kicked the bucket down the stairs at him and took off running, not bothering to stop and see if he hit his target or not, "Legs don't fail me now!" He dashed around the corner and sprinted past where Antonio was kneeling, hidden behind a trash can, "They're coming, and mad!" He kept going and didn't hear Antonio's response.

Alfred hurried past the library and waved at Roderich, who was laughing and leaning on the banister, as he went by, "Conference room secure, I'm headed for the hills!" He kept sprinting, wondering for a moment where Cruz was at. Probably down this next hall.

Alfred jumped behind a trashcan and gasped for breath. He had never done that much running in his life! Not even in gym class! Alfred peered over the trashcan. He could still hear yelling. Antonio must have hit his mark (or rather, several of his marks). Sure enough, Antonio came running around the corner a second later, with Roderich close behind.

"Crap!" Antonio grabbed a rope that was sticking out of a door and yanked it as he and Roderich went by, sending a massive number (_how did they all fit in there?_ Alfred tilted his head.) of beach balls flying out of the closet they were in and bouncing down the hall.

Roderich raced by, "Run Alfred!"

"Roger!" Alfred stood up, "I had to stop and catch my breath!" He kicked over the trash can and hurried after Antonio who had sprinted by him.

Alfred took the left hall as soon as he spotted it, while Roderich and Antonio kept going straight. "Hm?" He blinked at the silver bucket sitting in the middle of the hall. It was completely filled with tomatoes. "Oh hello. I get to throw some now?" Alfred grinned and grabbed the bucket, hiding behind another trashcan. He picked up the slingshot that was laying on top and readied his first tomato. _'Whoever is laying these out, I love them.'_ Alfred spotted the first school board member who turned in his direction and fired.

_SPLAT!_

"Got 'em." Alfred grinned, "Right in the face!" He hastily kept firing as more school board members came into sight, "Crap!"

Exhausting his supply in less than a minute, Alfred grabbed the handle of the bucket and flung it like a bowling ball, listening to it clatter and clank across the floor while he ran in the opposite direction. "Run to class, run to class!" Alfred sprinted down the steps that were in front of him, his study hall safe haven at the bottom. He yanked the door open and calmly went inside, shutting the door behind him, "Sorry I'm late~"

Alfred bounced to his seat and sat down, smiling at the teacher, who didn't even look up from reading her book, she just nodded to show she had heard him. _'Saaaaafe~'_ Alfred slumped over his desk, letting out a sigh of relief.

Antonio came waltzing in a minute later, "Sorry about that! My locker didn't want to cooperate." He plopped in an empty seat in front of Alfred. The teacher still didn't look up, she just nodded again.

Alfred leaned forward, "Answer is?"

Antonio turned to look at him, giving a huge smile, "That was hilarious~" He kept his voice a whisper so no one else around them would hear.

Alfred grinned and gave him a thumbs up, "I wanna hear the assembly after this!"

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Arthur drummed his fingers against the top of his desk, reading over the slide that was showing on the screen. It was basically the same thing he had just listened to. Problems and solutions. Arthur sighed heavily. It didn't help that his phone was going off, again. He continued to ignore it, and instead let his mind wander. His gaze drifted to the empty seats around him. _'I wonder where they're at…? Hopefully they're alright…'_

Arthur blinked back up at the slideshow then the slide changed. _'Trusting those around you…oh please.'_ Arthur rolled his eyes but read the bullet points that appeared anyway. Judging by the head that was laying on the desk in front of him, he wasn't the only one who thought this was a boring way to teach a class. Arthur frowned. He glanced around the room, most heads were already down. "How are we supposed to learn like this?" Arthur looked up at the counselor, who was looking around the room, making a face, and clearly not sure what to do. Arthur stood up and headed for the front of the room where a yardstick was laying on the desk, "May I borrow this?"

"Sure…but what are you…" The counselor started.

Arthur held up the yardstick and smiled cheerfully at the students who were still awake. Most of them got the hint and instantly covered their ears.

"I apologize for this." Arthur smiled and slammed the yardstick down as hard as he could on the desk in front of him.

Everyone in the room jumped, even the teacher and the students who were awake.

Arthur looked around at all the faces now staring in disbelief at him, "Much better. Now. The last time I checked, we all are here because we have an emotional problem of some kind. I am well aware that powerpoint presentations are boring, I don't want to hear a single complaint of that, but!" Arthur raised his voice, causing a few students near him to flinch.

He could feel his face burning from embarrassment about having to do this. But obviously the teacher was not stepping up to the plate.

"The longer you all decide to be lazy and sleep instead of listening to this—" Arthur waved the yardstick at the powerpoint screen, "The longer you all are going to be stuck here! You can't go home until you learn how to deal with the emotions that you don't have a control of! That means you are NEVER going to see your family again, you are NEVER going to see your friends again, and you are NEVER going to be able to go back to school until you PAY ATTENTION AND LEARN SOMETHING." Arthur shouted.

He waved the yardstick threateningly at the class, "I will use this. Every time I see someone lay their head down on their desk." He stalked back to his seat, still holding the yardstick, and plopped down in the chair.

"Well then…" The teacher said nervously, in a very small voice, "Thank you for that…I think…very good choice of words." He nodded and slowly turned his head back to the slideshow.

Arthur propped up the yardstick against his desk and neatly folded his hands on top of the desk. _'Now that wasn't so hard.'_ Arthur smiled and gave himself a mental pat on the back. _'Speaking up isn't all that bad.'_

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><p>That…really wasn't the speaking up he was supposed to be doing…but oh well. XD Arthur learned something anyway. Even if he took it as a completely different meaning. 8D Leave me a review~ Tell me what you thought of Alfred, too XD<p> 


	20. We're Heroes! and Don't even try

So many reviews~ And more ninja alerts. ; A ; Hey you. Yes you. Ninja person. Leave me a review. They make me happy. :D No clue where this chapter is going to go, guess we're going to find out~

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><p>.<p>

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Alfred hummed cheerfully. So far so good. No announcements at all, and not one person had come into the study hall room, though Alfred had noticed there were some rather grumpy-looking adults stalking by the classroom every now and then. Alfred took out his phone when it started vibrating and looked at the message. It took all of his self-composure to not bust out loud laughing.

_**One of you all can come up with a plan to get me out of this bathroom later. I'm staying put for now. Had a way too close call already.**_

"Oh man. Dude check your phone." Alfred tapped Antonio on the shoulder, "The message is hilarious."

"Hm? From Cruz?" Antonio looked at the message on his phone and started laughing.

"We gotta get him outta there." Alfred whispered, "If he gets caught we're all in trouble!"

Antonio laughed carelessly, "Cruz wouldn't rat us out~"

Alfred just stared at him with an are-you-kidding-me look on his face, "You're joking right? The guy hates me."

Antonio looked at Alfred, a slight frown on his face, before turning his gaze towards the clock that was hanging above the door, "Well…we still have like thirty minutes of class left…we're going to be stuck here a while. Hopefully Roderich can get to him."

Alfred nodded with a reluctant sigh, "Yeah. I hope Roderich's in a better situation than he is. Oh we didn't even hear anything from him, I hope he got away…" Alfred sat back in his chair once more and watched as another person went by the door. This person looked like he was definitely wearing a wig, and it was half-falling off his head. Alfred raised an eyebrow. _'If you're going to wear a wig to cover your bald spot, shouldn't you make sure it's on straight?'_

Alfred shrugged and stared out the classroom window. Well. At least this was study hall and he didn't have to feel guilty about not paying attention. He tapped his finger on the desk, thinking back to the third class when Arthur had called him on his phone. _'I wonder if he listened to that voicemail…well even if he did, there's nothing he could really do about it right? So…I'm safe on that regard?'_

Alfred sighed. There was absolutely nothing about to happen that was going to ruin his happy feeling for the day. That much was for certain. Even these stupid depressing thoughts are not going to ruin it. Alfred nodded to himself.

"_Attention all students."_

Alfred looked up at the speaker, "Uh-oh. That's not good."

"_Obviously we have some practical jokesters in this building."_

Yup. This was definitely not boding well. Hopefully Roderich and Cruz didn't end up getting caught after all. Alfred slumped in his seat a bit.

"Doesn't every school have a class clown?" Antonio asked, a blank expression on his face.

'_I don't think that's quite the level of joking they meant.'_ Alfred thought, but didn't say anything out loud so as not to incriminate himself.

"_As of noon, most of you would recognize this time as the start of your fifth class, there were several students NOT in class."_

Well some of us can't make it to class on time every time." Antonio apparently was having a very hard time holding back any comments.

Alfred smiled a bit. He had a good point though. Obviously students who were late talking to their last teacher couldn't make it to their next class on time. There was no way any school board could pin this on them just for being late.

His teacher looked at him over the top of her book, "Just ignore whatever it is. It doesn't apply to anyone in this class, I'm sure."

Alfred made a face. _'Uh…yeah. You go ahead and keep thinking that your students are perfect little angels.'_ He slumped in his seat a bit.

"_As of noon, the school board showed up in front of the school. And promptly got a welcome from several of the students. By means of bow and arrow."_

Alfred looked out the window, humming quietly to himself. Maybe if he just ignored it, the rant would stop. Whoever it was really needed to at least be quiet. He didn't need to make them all go deaf.

"_One of these arrows did damage to a car that was parked out front of the building. And upon entering the building, the school board members, as well as the principal, discovered that the front lobby had been completely covered in water and soap."_

'_I don't care if that was Roderich or Cruz, either one, I will shake their hand whoever damaged the car. That takes some skill with a soft-tipped arrow!'_ Alfred was amazed.

"Someone trying to save the janitors some trouble?" Their teacher finally looked up at the speaker system.

Yup. Was totally saving the janitors some trouble. Alfred grinned a bit. This broken hand does pretty well for holding up a mop. He tapped it lazily on the table. At least it wasn't hurting at all anymore. Probably because he wasn't focusing on it any more. There was too much other stuff to focus on!

"_When attempting to give chase to the hooli-student responsible for this, we had buckets of water poured down the stairs, fell down the stairs, had a bucket kicked down the stairs at us, had tomatoes thrown at us, had beach balls come flying out of nowhere…"_

"Is this our principal or a member of the school board?" Antonio asked, raising his hand slightly.

"I have no clue." Their teacher frowned, "Whoever it is, needs to calm down. This sounds like harmless fun to me."

Harmless fun. This sounds like harmless fun so far. Alfred rubbed the back of his head. Well whoever was practically yelling into the microphone didn't say anything about personal injuries. Sounded more like it was a hit to their pride more than anything else.

"_Had more tomatoes thrown at us, and when pursuing a student down a ramp, slipped on water and slid the whole way down and across the floor!"_

Alfred looked around the room, realizing that several students were now looking in his direction. He tilted his head in confusion at them. The student he was looking at turned and whispered something to her friend sitting next to her. Alfred turned his head back front again. _'They don't know it was us…just because we were late? We came in at different times even…'_

"_And now, that we have been searching the halls to discover them to be completely empty…"_

Well of course you did. Did you expect us to just stand around and wait for you slowpokes?

"Surprise." The teacher commented, "Like students who would go that far in planning wouldn't have a way to get out of it."

Alfred bit his lip, thinking of the text message that Cruz had sent. He had gone that far to hide. Alfred sighed heavily. Well. This was it. The time that the hero needed to step forward and take action. "Dude…we should probably save Cruz and Roderich…" Alfred leaned forward towards Antonio and whispered to his friend, "Cruz is gonna get expelled for sure if he gets caught…" _'Mattie. I'm doing this for you, because he's _YOUR_ friend.'_

"I don't wanna get in troubllleeeeee…" Antonio whimpered.

That was a typical response he should have expected after the hesitation at lunch.

"Be a hero~" Alfred grinned. This was sounding like more and more fun to be had! They could totally be the heroes and spare Roderich and Cruz from getting in trouble!

"I don't wanna be a hero!" Antonio protested, "I wanna stay in school and pretend I'm a well-behaved person!"

"_We are giving the students behind this act exactly TEN MINUTES. To get to the office."_

"What is that?" The teacher motioned with both hands, "You seriously expect someone to stand up and admit it was them to their entire class, AND go down to the office?"

Alfred patted Antonio reassuringly on the shoulder. "We should take this one for the team…" Alfred whispered. He nodded wisely even though Antonio was facing front.

"_If no one comes in ten minutes, then punishment will follow to all students found to have participated in this little charade!"_

*click*

'_Does that mean we won't get punished if we go to the office now?'_ Alfred took out his phone as it started going off: _**STAY WHERE YOU'RE AT. DO NOT MOVE. They don't have anything that says it was us!**_

Antonio was also looking at the text from Roderich and turned in his seat to look back at Alfred.

Alfred looked up from his phone and calmly gazed back at Antonio, "What do you think?" _'I think we should be total heroes here!'_

"I think my parents are gonna be grounding me for the next year and a half." Antonio sighed heavily.

'_YES! Thank you Antonio!'_ "Kay~ let's text Roderich and tell him we're staying put." Alfred hummed happily and sent a message to both Roderich and Cruz.

Antonio whimpered but started sending a message anyway, "We're lying?"

"Yeah. Hopefully Roderich and Cruz don't down to the office. We're taking one for the team." Alfred responded, still whispering. _'This is it! This is what heroes wait for all over the world! They wait for their one chance to shine!'_

Antonio sighed heavily and put his phone away.

"We can do this man." Alfred held out his hand, "Take one for the team. We are heroes."

"We are so in trouble…" Antonio embraced Alfred's hand. He then very slowly got up out of his chair, "I'll be in the office if anyone needs meeeeee…" Antonio trudged out of the room, dragging his feet.

Alfred stood up shortly after Antonio had and skipped across the front of the room, pausing before he went out the door. "Farewell~ you all have been a wonderful class to sit with~" Alfred waved with both arms before exiting, kicking the door shut behind him. He slung his arm around Antonio's shoulder, "We're gonna march into that office like we don't regret a thing~!"

'_This is totally what Gilbert would do.'_ Alfred smiled cheerfully.

"It feels like a funeral march." Antonio sighed, but slung his arm around Alfred's waist, "But fine. I'll put on one more act for your sake."

Alfred grinned, "Good. Then put on your best smile, because we're going through with this!" He turned his head, "Do you hear the sound of something?"

"Yeah. It sounds like someone clapping…" Antonio looked behind him and saw their study hall teacher standing out in the hallway clapping, "Oh geez."

"Hey, now I really don't regret a thing! She's clapping for us!" Alfred grinned and waved his broken hand at her.

Antonio sighed, but stopped to wave as well, though his face turned red when slowly some of their classmates came out and started clapping behind their teacher, "Now it's just embarrassing Alfred."

"Thank you all~" Alfred called before skipping down the hallway, slinging his arm around Antonio's shoulders again, "See that? That's that makes a hero stand up! It's not for the glory, it's for the people who appreciate what he does~"

Antonio laughed, "Yeah. Even if the hero gets EXPELLED."

"Expulsion or not, we can do this!" Alfred skipped around the corner, humming as he went, the clapping slowly disappearing out of hearing range, "I wonder how long they're gonna stand there and clap."

"Who knows." Antonio responded, "The office…it's in sight."

"I forgot how close we were to it, man." Alfred winced, "Not regretting a thing!"

Antonio stared at Alfred, "Who's taking the fall for coming up with the whole stunt?"

"We both take equal blame." Alfred said automatically.

"Can do." Antonio nodded slowly.

Alfred put his good hand on the handle of the door to the office, "Ready?" He asked quietly.

"Ready as I'm gonna be." Antonio seemed to be mentally bracing himself.

"Bring it on." Alfred twisted the handle and pushed the door open.

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Arthur made his way down the hall, still carrying the yardstick. He hadn't seen Matthew at all yet, hopefully Alfred's little brother would wake up in time for lunch. It wouldn't help at all if he would sleep right through the mid-meal, especially when supper was so late.

Arthur stood in line, casually leaning against the yardstick as though it were a walking stick. He was blatantly ignoring the stares he was getting, though the ones from his last class knew _why_ he was carrying it around. Arthur smiled cheerfully at the young woman handing out the lunch trays, "Thank you."

He turned and headed back out, tray in one hand, yardstick in the other, and spotted Lovino sitting at one of the back tables, with what looked to be possibly a teacher sitting with him. Hopefully everything was all right. Arthur sat down next to Lovino and set the tray carefully on the table, propping the yardstick up beside him.

"Why are you carrying that?" Lovino asked, pointing at the yardstick. He seemed to be glaring at it for some reason.

Arthur looked at him blankly, "It became necessary." He turned his head to look at the adult at the table, "Who is this?"

"Oh that's my idiota grandfather." Lovino grumbled, "_Apparently_ he's a counselor here."

"Oh, really? What class do you teach?" Arthur picked up his drink bottle. He had to admit he was slightly curious to know what Lovino's relative would be teaching, though not near as curious as he was to figure out what drink they had given them. It certainly didn't look like any drink he's ever had.

"It really doesn't have a name. But if you have a class that has three students in it, that would be mine. I try and help the students repair the emotional bond that may have gotten severed with their family." Roma smiled.

Arthur, who was mid-swallow, promptly spat out the drink at what Roma had said. He coughed repeatedly, hitting himself on the chest with his fist.

"Is it that bad?" Lovino gaped at him, about to take a drink himself.

"No, that wasn't the drink, my apologies. Let me tell you this." Arthur pointed his fork rather threateningly at Roma, "Do not ever attempt to repair any emotional bond between me and my family. It is not going to happen."

Lovino snorted and took a gulp of his drink, "I tried telling him that already."

Roma pouted, "Your family is the most important thing for someone to have~" He smiled cheerfully as Matthew sat down next to him, "Hello there!"

"Eh…hello." Matthew looked at him, "Who are you?"

Arthur grumbled under his breath and started eating.

"I'm Roma, Lovino's my grandson~" Roma patted Matthew on the head, "You look like you slept well!"

"Eh. I just woke up." Matthew reddened, "Oh. That's right. Thanks Arthur." He turned to the Englishman, "For staying at the nurse station with me."

"Hm? You're welcome." Arthur smiled, "You didn't miss much in that last class we had anyhow."

Lovino looked at the yardstick again, "Clearly we all missed something. Hey, where's Gilbert at?" He glanced around, "he's not here yet."

Roma blinked, "Hm? Gilbert? He's in the hospital. He was the medical emergency this morning."

Arthur promptly started choking on the mouthful he had, "Say something like that with a little more care, would you?" He yelled, after managing to swallow.

Matthew stared at Roma in disbelief, "E-eh…is he okay?"

"He's fine, he's fine. His father's with him at the moment!" Roma smiled.

Lovino tapped his fork on the plate, looking as if he was thinking about something, "Uh… I thought he lived with his mother."

Matthew nodded in silence, "That's…what he said…"

"Regis has been in town the whole time. He and Gilbert's mother just found each other shortly after the mission for change at your school started, so Regis came here to talk to Gilbert." Roma started munching on the pasta he had on his plate.

"Well. I imagine Gilbert's morning was not entirely to his liking then. Especially not if he's in the hospital now." Arthur took out his phone and glared at the name that was flashing on the screen, "And I do wish he would stop calling me."

"Oh? Who's he?" Roma looked over at him, eyes sparkling curiously.

"Stupid older brother." Arthur stuffed the phone back in his pocket, fuming slightly, "He's been calling me non-stop."

"He wants to talk to you, you should answer~" Roma cheered happily.

"NO." Arthur growled.

Lovino looked at Arthur, "Don't bother. He doesn't comprehend what no means."

"That explains a lot." Arthur grumbled.

Roma pouted, "How mean! I know what no means! It's what stubborn people say when they won't talk to someone who could actually help them."

Arthur felt his face growing hot. He was so tempted to use the yardstick to slam Roma over the head.

"You are the rudest, most inconsiderate, lousy excuse for an adult I have ever met!" Lovino yelled.

Arthur took a calm sip of his drink instead of hitting Roma over the head, ignoring the looks of confusion they were getting from the students around them who had heard Lovino's shout.

"I love you too, Lovino." Roma sighed.

Lovino made strangling motions with the air in front of him and started stabbing the leftover pasta on his plate.

"It was much quieter in the nurse station…" Matthew whispered.

"Mhm." Arthur agreed.

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><p>And that be all for this chapter! :D The end is coming soon. :3 For those of you who think this is taking too long to get to the reunion. =w=<p> 


	21. Heroes win and Why do we have to?

So fanfiction has yet to tell me the last chapters were updated (as of Friday; and I posted them Thursday)…I guess they're experiencing some delays because this happened last week as well. :/ Anyway, moving on to happier (and probably more comical) things…

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><p>.<p>

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Alfred glanced at the secretary when he stepped into the office, Antonio right behind him. She looked up at both of them over her glasses with a questioning gaze.

"Can I help you two?" The secretary asked, lifting her head to look at them through her glasses, "Or did you get sent down here for misbehaving again?"

"Actually we're here about the announcement." Alfred leaned on the writing desk.

"Yeah they kinda announced loud and clear for the people responsible to come to the office, so here we are." Antonio stood next to Alfred, though he didn't lean on it like his friend.

Alfred grinned cheerfully at the secretary who stared at them as if to say someone-actually-answered-that-stupid-page? "So here we are!" Alfred waved with his unbandaged hand.

"So you are." The secretary frowned, "One moment. I'll tell Mr. Smith and the board members you're here." She stood up and walked over to the closed door.

Alfred hummed to himself and looked over the papers on the desk curiously, waiting for her to tell them to go in. _'We are so gonna get yelled at for this.'_

"Mr. Smith, the two students claiming to be responsible are out here..."

Alfred looked over as the secretary opened the principal's office door slightly. Yup. He could definitely feel some tension coming from the room. That or it was nervousness coming from Antonio. Alfred patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, "Right here with ya, man."

Antonio just stared at him. He didn't seem to able to put words together to form a coherent sentence.

"You two can go in." The secretary walked back to her desk, "Good luck." She smiled cheerfully at both of them and sat down in her chair once more.

"Thanks~" Alfred smiled at her and skipped over to the waiting door.

"Going to need it…" Antonio followed along behind Alfred, "Find a happy place…"

"Oh cheer up. We have no regrets~" Alfred patted him on the shoulder again.

"Right. No regrets." Antonio didn't look like he believed what he said for an instant.

Alfred grinned and walked into the office, ignoring the sound of the shutting door behind Antonio. Only four school board members plus the principal to deal with. No issues with that. At least they didn't have the whole group in here. Of course it would have gotten rather crowded…

"You two again?" Mr. Smith glared at both of them.

"Us again~" Alfred kept the cheerful smile on his face, despite slightly worrying about what was going to happen as a result of this, "Someone called, so we answered!"

"Well at least you two are willing to step up and take responsibility for your actions!" One of the female school board members huffed angrily, "What you two did was irresponsible! Someone could have gotten seriously hurt!"

"Could have, didn't." Alfred shrugged carelessly, "Like we really would go that far without thinking of that already. Why do you think the water was poured down the stairs before whoever-that-was got more than three steps up?" _'That was probably the quickest excuse I have ever made up in my life. Why can't I be that quick-thinking when it comes to taking a test or something?'_

She seemed to be dumbfounded by the quick response, so the next person in line stepped into the argument, "There were arrows shot at us as we got out of our cars for crying out loud!"

"They were soft-tipped arrows." Antonio spoke up flatly, "They couldn't hurt you no matter if there was a master bowman shooting them or a novice bowman. They bounced off of your head. You can't honestly tell me those hurt."

'_Way to go Antonio! Shoot 'em down with their own words!'_ Alfred looked at Antonio with sparkling eyes. _'I knew he could be a hero!'_

"T-They punctured a tire of one of the cars we got here in!" The board member still looked angry, but his voice gave it away that he was running out of things to argue with. Alfred smiled a bit.

"Ever hear of a spare tire? And if whoever it was wouldn't have moved, then maybe the tire wouldn't have been shot." Antonio commented.

'_Yes!'_ Alfred let out a mental cheer as the board member backed down finally. _'Two down, three to go! We can do this!'_

"Then what about the tomatoes thrown at us? And the silver pots!" The next board member stepped forward angrily.

'_Huh…seriously what's wrong with throwing tomatoes?'_ Alfred stared at her, "Food fights happen all the time…what did you get hit with a rotten tomato or something? They're soft either way."

She stared at Alfred in disbelief, so did Antonio. _'Did I say something wrong?'_ Alfred tilted his head in confusion.

Much to Alfred's surprise, she stepped back and the fourth person stepped forward, "You dumped soapy water all across the main lobby, and set up a trip-rope in the hallway!"

'_That was totally me.'_ Alfred suppressed the urge to grin and listened as Antonio spoke up.

"Well now you can't honestly tell me that you know for sure it wasn't a careless janitor who might have forgotten you guys were coming, but I'll let that slide." Antonio shrugged.

Alfred looked at him blankly. _'And he was staring at me like I had two heads for what I said? At least I don't try and pass the buck off on an innocent bystander, geez.'_

Antonio continued speaking, "But really all we did with that was save the janitor the trouble of cleaning it later, it's not like we dumped anything harmful on the floor, it was just soap and water, and that can easily be skated across, and even if you did fall, all you would end up with is a wet backside."

Alfred watched as the four school board members turned to the principal, unsure of what to say. He turned his head towards the principal as well, waiting for him to speak up. Mr. Smith just tapped his pencil on the desk, staring at both Alfred and Antonio, "Somehow…I have a hard time believing you two came up with this entire scheme."

Alfred felt as if something snapped inside of him for a second, but ignored it and spoke anyway, "Yeah I guess two students who are managing to pass all of their classes with no problems, except for this morning where both of us flunked a test because we couldn't concentrate, probably in part due to my brother and our three friends committing suicide the other day, couldn't possibly pull off a prank of this magnitude by ourselves. It would have only taken the both of us like five minutes to pull it off. One handles the first floor, and the other the second floor. You can't honestly tell me it would take more than that to accomplish this." He knew his smile was probably coming across as slightly ticked off, but didn't make any attempt to put on a more cheerful one instead.

Mr. Smith wasn't fazed by his response, though Alfred did think it was funny that all four board members instantly took several steps away from him, "So who dumped the glue in the conference room?"

"I did." Alfred said, not hesitating at all, "I also dumped soapy water in the lobby, set up both trip ropes, and dumped water down the stairs. Oh and the bucket of water on top of the conference room door, that was me, too." _'Bring it on dude. We are a united front.'_

Antonio sighed, "I filled the janitor's closet with beach balls, shot arrows at the school board members while they were getting out of their cars, and threw tomatoes at them when they were coming up the hallway. And kicked over buckets of water while running down a ramp to get to my class."

'_That makes us sound awesome, listing it like we actually did everything…'_ Alfred glanced at Antonio for a minute before the principal spoke up again.

"The second barrage of tomatoes?" Mr. Smith asked, raising an eyebrow.

'_Forgot about that one.' _Alfred gave a more cheerful smile now, "That was me! I took the hall to the left and threw tomatoes before going to my fifth class."

Mr. Smith slapped the palm of his hand to his forehead, "You two…"

'_You two what?'_ Alfred raised an eyebrow at the principal, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

"Then answer me one more question." Mr. Smith said finally, after rubbing his temple in frustration, "Why?"

'_Uh…wasn't planned for this.'_ Alfred looked at Antonio, who returned the stare before moving his gaze away and back to the only person seated in the room, "Why? You're asking us why."

"I am." Mr. Smith raised both eyebrows.

Alfred gaped at Antonio. This was not good. Antonio sounded really ticked off now, and that was saying something for the usually carefree Spaniard. _'Something must have snapped in him, too.'_

Antonio looked over at the school board members and glared at them before turning his head back to the principal, "You're asking two students why we started and finished a prank on the members of our stupid school board."

"Stupid…"

Alfred looked over and saw the speaker was the first female he had forced into backing down when they had started this argument. He smiled slightly and looked back at his friend. Hopefully Antonio had a good argument up his sleeve. Otherwise they were toast. Burnt toast.

"I've had this conversation with you before today." Antonio said flatly (_'He has?'_ Alfred tilted his head in confusion) , "And I will repeat it. There is such pressure on us students from you all," Antonio glared at the school board members again, "For us to have good grades. And why? This is supposed to be the best years of our life, at least that's what my parents told me, but honestly I can't see that happening. (_'Oh yeah. Mom and dad told me and Mattie that all the time!_' Alfred nodded slightly in agreement) Every day is the same thing. We come to school, we're forced to learn things in the most boring way possible and we go home to study for a test on a pointless subject that we might never use again the rest of our life."

Alfred was now staring at Antonio in disbelief. He clearly was not happy, and ticked off was definitely starting to sound like a good description for him.

"I had a best friend, up until three days ago. He was always complaining about how school was boring, and so was I. We could agree on that no problem, but now he's not here anymore. Because of an assembly we had _four_ days ago. And you even said yourself at the assembly the following day, that it was because of our reactions to that first assembly that they were no longer here. We had four students commit suicide here, because of the way we were taught to react to that kind of situation." Antonio looked at the school board again, "What are we supposed to do? That speaker told us to talk to the ones we thought were suffering, and I did. I honestly tried. But he killed himself the next day because he thought I was making fun of him! He didn't say my name in the letter, but I know damn well it was directed at me!"

Alfred felt his eyes tear up. Antonio was that cry he had heard in the assembly. He should have known it even then just from the picture that had gone up, but he had been in too much shock to really focus on it. And to make it worse, the letter was directed at Antonio? That musta really hurt… _'It's the same…Mattie's letter had me in it, too…'_

"We react to situations the way we are taught to. And now we learned, too late, that there are some situations that we need to find, and are allowed to find, some other way to react, to stop someone before the unthinkable happens. I laugh at situations that are stressful for me, it's how I relax, I didn't think that he would ever even get the idea that I was making fun of him. What the heck am I supposed to do now? If I continue doing the same thing I've always done, then how am I supposed to stop it from happening again? If we keep doing the same thing over and over nothing is going to change!" Antonio was waving wildly with his hands at this point.

Alfred could see Antonio was close to breaking down and silently hoped that the principal would stop him from continuing on any further. He looked at the principal, well aware that the tears from his own eyes were threatening to spill over. _'If we don't get outta here soon, I'm totally gonna cry and that is just not cool.'_

Mr. Smith reached behind him and took a sheet of paper off the wall, and held it silent in front of him, showing the side with tallies to the others in the room, "I have had six students and one teacher down here today."

Alfred silently counted the small lines on the paper with a blank expression, "There's more tallies on that paper than there are number of people who were here."

"First line was Roderich Edelstein. He threw water balloons, as you two well know, in his first class, and quoted Gilbert Beilschmidt's letter in saying that there were teachers who needed to learn how to live a little." Mr. Smith said quietly, "The second line was Alfred, who duct-taped his entire classroom in an attempt, and a rather successful one, to disrupt class and prevent another powerpoint from being shown."

Alfred perked up a bit. _'Totally successful.'_

"The third line, was also Alfred. For stating that his main reason for acting out was to cheer up his brother's best friend."

Alfred rubbed the back of his head, a bit embarrassed. It was a good thing Cruz wasn't down here now. He'd be getting a weird stare for sure.

"The fourth line was Antonio. Who threw beach balls around and prevented the teacher from maintaining control on her classroom." Mr. Smith looked at the student he was talking about, "The fifth line, is also Antonio."

Antonio blinked, "Hm?"

"You not only made an attempt to break the monotony of class, you also spoke out against it and provided a number of valid arguments against the speaker who was here, as well as your teachers and their teaching styles." Mr. Smith continued to hold the paper, his voice not wavering at all.

'_Did he…already know the outcome of this argument when we came in the room?'_ Alfred blinked.

"The sixth line belonged to a teacher, Mrs. Rose, who spoke in defense of her student's actions, because he was defending his friend when hitting another." Mr. Smith tapped the paper on his desk, "The seventh line belonged to Cruz Rodriguez."

"Oh he was down here, too." Alfred could've laughed in any other situation they were in.

"He punched his ex-girlfriend because she was insulting him as well as his best friend, who is no longer here." Mr. Smith said quietly.

Alfred didn't say anything in response to this, knowing full well who the principal was referring to.

"So now…" Mr. Smith turned the paper around so he was looking at it, "This brings us to the end of another attempt of yours to try and turn things around at this school." He looked over at the school board, "And as I've said before, the students here may act out from time to time, but they always…" He looked back at Alfred and Antonio, "Always. Have a reason for their actions."

'_Are you kidding me? This is sounding like we're getting out of this with no problems whatsoever.'_ Alfred stared at the principal in bewilderment. _'We're getting…a detention at least…right? It could not have been that easy.'_

"These two, despite your attempts to make them feel guilty, have countered every single argument you could come up with. The plan was well-thought out, despite the tire incident, but that is indeed what spare tires are for. And despite knowing the consequences of their actions, they came down anyway." Mr. Smith looked over at the school board again, "Here we have two students willing to take full responsibility for their actions, and all they did was have a little harmless fun."

Alfred looked over at Antonio, who seemed to be staring at the principal in shock. It sounded as if he was defending their actions more than reprimanding them. Alfred looked back at Mr. Smith.

"I have no intentions of punishing either of these students." Mr. Smith said, quite calmly.

'_We totally got off!'_ Alfred looked over at the school board, who all seemed to be gaping at Mr. Smith in disbelief. _'…maybe?'_

Mr. Smith reached behind him and took a second paper off of the wall, "I didn't think the time would come when I would take the paper off of the wall this soon. But I do believe the time has come."

"Hm?" Alfred blinked. Antonio made a similar noise beside him.

"You two can go back to your study hall. At least you decided to do something of this magnitude in a class where you wouldn't miss anything…but don't. Do that again." Mr. Smith glared at both of them.

"Yes, sir." Alfred grinned sheepishly, before slightly edging himself towards the door. He looked over at the school board, expecting them to say something, but they said nothing, so Alfred happily left the office, Antonio following right behind.

"Is this seriously okay…?" Antonio whispered once the door had shut behind them, "And what was that second paper?"

"I don't care if this is okay or not, I don't care what that paper was, being heroes rocks!" Alfred waved at the secretary cheerfully as they left the main office and stepped out into the hallway, "See? That wasn't even that bad."

"I can't believe we didn't even get a detention." Antonio gaped at Alfred, "How was that…" He looked back at the closed door, "It feels like I'm asleep and this was just a dream."

"A totally awesome dream." Alfred gave him a thumbs-up, "Let's go back to study hall~"

"Yeah. Let's go back to the people who were clapping." Antonio rolled his eyes but followed Alfred down the hallway, "I still can't believe this."

"Oh hey…" Alfred looked behind them before dropping his voice to a whisper, "Maybe we should help Cruz while we're not in class…"

"Oh yeah…that would probably be best." Antonio chuckled a bit.

.

.

Arthur swung his legs back and forth over the side of his bed. He glanced down at Matthew, who was curled up in a ball on his mattress, looking like he was fast asleep. Arthur looked over at Lovino, who was glaring at Roma. Apparently his grandfather had decided to follow them back to their room. Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Excuse me…" The nurse peered into the room, "I have an announcement to make for you three."

"Hm?" Arthur looked over at her. Below him he could hear Matthew stirring slightly in response to the voice.

"Your principal called, you four can go back to class tomorrow." The nurse smiled cheerfully.

Arthur's eyes widened, "That was fast! We were only here a couple days!"

"We can go home!" Lovino held up both hands in the air, "Oh thank you!"

"Eh...that'll be nice…" Matthew was now sitting straight up, "It…it's really okay that we go home now?"

"Yup!" The nurse smiled, "Gilbert will be attending with you three tomorrow, you four have one last assembly to give to the school."

"Oh no." Arthur moaned and instantly laid back down on the bed, "I knew it was too good to be true."

Matthew started laughing below him at Arthur's response.

"What's this assembly about?" Lovino asked.

"You have to tell your classmates you're alive. Otherwise they'll think they're seeing ghosts." The nurse responded, "So the principal will be holding an assembly tomorrow that _all four of you_ will be speaking at."

"Eh?" Matthew let out what sounded like a small squeak, "Do I have to?"

"Gaaaaah…" Lovino moaned.

"You guys can do it! I have faith in you~" Roma cheered.

"DON'T." Arthur and Lovino both yelled in unison.

.

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><p>And thus the ending is drawing closer. :3 Sorry about the repetitive talking for those of you reading both Lovino Style and British Style. =w=; I tried to change words around here and there so it wasn't as repetitive. Anyway, leave me a review~ Next chapter is gonna be slightly… ._.; *doesn't know how to describe it* slightly…eh. I'll try and make it as cheerful as I can. Let's go with that. XD<p> 


	22. That driver is going to kill us all

So there were many reviews asking "what was in the voicemail"…and I realized that Arthur never actually listened to it, so you all asking are going to get your answer in this chapter. :3 also, to the one who asked a while ago, they'll be getting the memorial posters that all the classmates signed next chapter, before the assembly. :3

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><p>.<p>

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Arthur sat on a bench outside of the emotional facility, glaring slightly across the neatly kept front lawn. Lovino's ambulance had already come and gone (with him in it, of course), and so had Matthew's hearse (which Arthur did not envy Matthew in the slightest for). Now, Arthur was stuck waiting for his own ambulance to show up. It seemed to be running a bit on the late side.

'_While I'm here…'_ Arthur took out his cell phone and dialed for his voicemailbox again. _'The rest of that message…'_ He held the phone up to his ear and listened while the message repeated itself once more. Finally finding where he had left off the last time, Arthur settled back on the bench to listen.

"_So I was thinking about you guys this morning while Antonio was upstairs getting ready. Oh yeah, did Lovino text Antonio at all? He thought it might have been Feliciano trying to cheer him up, but I'm not really sure what to say in that kind of situation. I guess you can't answer that can you? Anyway…"_

Arthur made a mental note to ask Lovino when he saw the Italian again. Whenever that damn ambulance got here. He looked across the parking lot and driveway again, but still didn't see any emergency vehicle.

"_Man if you were here right now you'd probably be telling me off wouldn't you? Here I am the class before lunch, and I'm up on the roof getting mopey. It seems amazing in a way…it's only been two days, but yet it seems like everyone is moving on with their lives already…I suppose that's a good thing, but it feels like everyone is moving in fast forward while I'm stuck in slow motion."_

Arthur made a face. That was exactly opposite of any situation Alfred was usually in. He was always the one springing forward and making everyone else look really slow. Arthur shook his head. _'Probably a lack of caffeine in his blood.'_

"_I guess it doesn't help that I'm blaming myself for what happened with Matthew. I know you were a friend too…"_

"I was what?" Arthur looked at the phone in disbelief.

"_But Mattie was my twin brother, and I couldn't even see that he was upset about anything. Every time I tried to do something with him, he would just push me away…maybe I was too late in trying? I guess I'll ask him the next time I see him."_

Arthur blinked several times, still stuck on the fact that Alfred had called him his friend, "F-friend? Since when…"

"_So I've been trying to get Cruz to cheer up because he looks major depressed whether he realizes it or not…oh, he punched his now ex-girlfriend just a little while ago. I was texting him. I thought that was rather funny~"_

Arthur winced as Alfred started laughing. "Yes, because inflicting pain on someone else is really funny, Alfred." Arthur sighed heavily, but looked up again when he heard the sound of a vehicle approaching, "Oh there it is finally." He stood up and rested his free hand on the small suitcase beside him.

"_But anyway, I wish I could see you guys again. Just to tell Gilbert he really was awesome, to tell you and Mattie I'm sorry, and I wish I had known Lovino, but I never really talked to him. I think we have like one class together, maybe. Kinda strange to think he's in a place with my little brother and I'm in another place with his."_

"That's one way of putting it." Arthur commented dryly. He waited until the ambulance had parked before picking up his suitcase and wandering over to it. The attendant hopped out a minute later and opened the doors to the back.

"Sorry about the wait!" She smiled apologetically.

"No worries. I was listening to my voicemail in the meantime." Arthur smiled in return. He placed his suitcase on a rack near the back of the ambulance and climbed inside. He took his seat on the cot and swung his legs up one at a time before laying down, still holding his cell phone to his ear. _'Just how long is this voicemail anyway?'_

"_But still…even though I know it does absolutely no good dwelling on it, I still miss you guys. And it hurts to think that I could have stopped it from happening if I hadn't been so self-absorbed in whatever I was doing."_

'_He really sounds like he's depressed.'_ Arthur sighed as the attendant wrapped the straps around his legs. She glanced at him to see he was still listening to his phone and wrapped the second strap around his chest and one arm, leaving the other free so he could continue to stay on the phone.

"We're ready back here!" The attendant called to the driver.

"Okay, let's floor it then! We're late!" The driver instantly pressed the gas down.

Arthur yelped as the ambulance started bouncing down the road a fast pace, "You all are doing the speed limit right?"

"We got the lights on!" The driver laughed.

"Sometimes I worry about him…" The attendant gripped the metal bar above her head for dear life.

"I'm worrying about us for the moment." Arthur grumbled, but returned his attention to the voicemail.

"_I'm not really sure if this is helping or not. Helps to talk about it, but it'd kinda help more to get a response to it. I guess the chances of that are zero, huh? I should go now, though, someone's calling me. Goodbye Iggy~"_

"THREE." Arthur growled into the phone, even though he knew the blonde it was regarding couldn't hear him. _'I will hit him three times over the head when I see him tomorrow, damn it.'_ Arthur put the phone in his pocket and scowled. Stupid Alfred. _'Hm…that person calling would have been me.'_ Arthur chuckled a bit as the ambulance shot around a corner, and instantly yelped, "Can we keep all four tires on the ground please?"

"All four tires were on the ground! What are you talking about?" The driver burst out laughing.

"He's insane…how does he have his license…" Arthur hit his head against the pillow several times, "Bloody hell, we are going to be there soon, aren't we?"

"I hope so." The attendant said, still clinging to the bar, her face turning slightly pale by now.

"And arrive we have!" The driver called, standing on the brakes.

Arthur yelped as the ambulance made a loud screeching sound before coming to a halt. "Get. Me. Out. Of. This. Thing." He growled.

"Covering you up first." The attendant stood, rather shakily Arthur noticed, and unbuckled the chest strap so she could strap his other arm down. "One moment please~" She covered Arthur's face with the sheet and opened the back doors to shift the gurney he was on onto the ground.

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><p>Time skip of about five-ten minutes<p>

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><p>"Arthur Kirkland I presume." Arthur heard Lovino's voice as he was being pushed into a room.<p>

"Oh do shut up."Arthur grumbled, still recovering from the traumatic ride he just had.

"Und a jolly hello to you too." Gilbert was here as well then. Arthur must have been the last one to arrive.

Arthur shifted over to the empty bed once the straps were removed, and grumbled under his breath about the nerve of the driver not obeying any road rules whatsoever. He shifted himself under the blankets before looking around the room, eyes stopping on the blonde-haired male who was sitting next to Gilbert, "…" _'Who is that?'_

Lovino was also staring at the person sitting next to Gilbert, "So…I take it…you two are related after all?"

'…_this is Ludwig's dad? I suppose they do look alike…except…the length of hair…'_ Arthur raised an eyebrow.

Gilbert just glared in response to Lovino's question, "He's a bigger stiff than Ludwig."

'…_Was that supposed to be a yes?'_ Arthur shook his head and looked over at Matthew, "How are you holding up?"

"Eh. I'm fine. I could have done without the ride in the casket, though." Matthew whispered.

"Excuse me…" Regis glared at Gilbert, none to happy about Gilbert's comment apparently.

"You're excused, by all means, leave." Gilbert motioned to the door, "Shoo."

'…_I take it they don't get along then.'_ Arthur raised an eyebrow but turned his attention back to Matthew, "A casket? Really?"

Matthew nodded in silence while Lovino, having now laid down, returned his attention to the person in the bed next to him, "Oh. By the way, Gilbert."

"Hm?" Gilbert glanced over at Lovino, now ignoring who Arthur was assuming to be Gilbert's dad.

"Grandpa says hi~" Lovino smiled (though he looked like he was faking it), "He was that stupid counselor you were complaining about?"

"Oh, ja, Roma? That's your grandpa?" Gilbert burst out laughing, "He reminded me so much of your ditzy brother, too!"

"Ditzy…" Lovino blinked, "Feli is ditzy?"

"Well what else would you call him?" Gilbert stared at him blankly.

"Eh…" Matthew looked back over at Arthur, "It feels kind of strange to think we're going back to school tomorrow…"

Arthur nodded in silence. It really did feel strange, even just thinking about it. Lovino grabbed his pillow and pressed it to his face, "I don't want to speak at an assembly damn it!" _'And apparently he thinks so as well.'_

"Ja. And suffocating yourself is going to do what exactly?" Gilbert remarked, giving the Italian a blank stare.

Lovino responded by throwing his pillow towards the foot of his bed, "What are we even supposed to say tomorrow?"

"Ta-da?" Gilbert raised his hands a little ways off the bed in a mock cheer.

"I will buy you lunch if you do that." Arthur spoke up. Because that would be well worth the look on the principal's face.

"Deal!" Gilbert grinned, "Totally going to now!"

Regis just sighed and shook his head. Clearly the two had completely opposite personalities, Arthur smiled.

.

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><p>8D Second chapter update done! :D Yay! So I decided to split it up into two chapters after all. Sorry about the lack of Alfred in this chapter. XD You all can look forward to the reunion in the next chapter.<p> 


	23. Reunion: Home, finally

Okay, so I wrote the Canadian Style chapter before this one, I suck at the reunion. Just a warning. I cannot write romance for the life of me. When you get to that point, use your imaginations. Please. =.=; Also, time skip to next morning.

Procella, Youjustgotiggyrolled, ScienceWolf, UK's Only, Ellenthefox, SpiritOfTheMapleLeaf, Oceanfur, Fekete, (and all you other names I can't remember at the moment)... you guys are awesome. You kept reviewing over and over. Thank you. :3

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><p>.<p>

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Arthur looked at the wall scroll he had spread out on the table in front of him. He was enjoying reading the comments that some people had written, though a couple had raised an eyebrow, and one in particular had raised his temper.

_**Arthur- dude you need to lighten up, and smile a bit more. That scowl is probably permanently imprinted on your face now. Love you anyway. –Resident Hero**_

"Whatever Alfred. Like I don't know that was you." Arthur growled through gritted teeth. _'He keeps signing everything Resident Hero!'_ Arthur scowled and continued reading over the inscriptions. He found Roderich's near the bottom and smiled.

_**Arthur- I guess I was a really bad friend, wasn't I? I was too busy to even notice you were upset. I'm sorry.**_

Arthur's eyes scanned over the object in front of him before going back to Alfred's line. _'Idiot… who signs anything Resident…huh?'_ Arthur re-read the line again, "What the bloody hell do you mean love you anyway? You stupid git!" Arthur hit his head on the table and let out a strangled noise of frustration. He glanced over the different signatures again and found Allistor's, much to his surprise.

_**Brother so help me when I see you again, I am going to hit you over the head. Why the hell would ye not talk to us? We would have listened!**_

"…" Arthur winced. That sounded like it was going to hurt when they caught up with him in the hallway at some point today. Terrific. Arthur sighed and found Reilly's as well.

_**I will try and keep Allistor calmed down, but I have to agree with him. Why would you not just say something? Anything? Did you really think we would ignore you? What kind of idiot did that anyway? I'll punch him for you!**_

"I don't think Alfred would appreciate that…" Arthur sighed, "And I don't think he was ignoring me after all." Arthur hit his head on the table again, "I am an idiot." He glanced over as the principal peered in, "Hm?"

"Just about ready." Mr. Smith commented.

"Oh, alright then." Arthur stood up and pulled the wall scroll along with him. He followed the principal over to where Gilbert and a rather nervous-looking Lovino were standing and lay his wall scroll down on the table where two others lay.

Mr. Smith walked off again, more than likely to get Matthew, as Arthur noticed he wasn't here yet. Arthur crossed his arms and frowned in the meantime, thinking back to what had been written on the wall scroll. Well wasn't it obvious why he didn't talk to anyone about it? He had only just started feeling it the day he was taken out of school.

His eyes drifted to where Gilbert and Lovino were standing. Gilbert looked completely calm despite the fact that they all had to go on stage. Rather seeing _Gilbert_ calm was a little unnerving. Lovino on the other hand looked about ready to pass out. Apparently public speaking is not high on his list of activities he likes doing. _'That or it's because of what he wrote in his letter…'_ Arthur tilted his head slightly and only looked up when the principal returned with Matthew in tow.

Mr. Smith brought Matthew over to where Arthur, Gilbert, and Lovino were standing, "Alright. Let me go out there and start this off. Oh." Mr. Smith turned back towards them, he had begun to walk away, "And NO wisecracks. Remember these people thought you were dead."

Mr. Smith turned away again and walked out onto the stage towards the microphone.

"I can't believe we're back here…" Gilbert whispered, breaking the uneasy silence that had settled, "So unawesome…"

"Well, all it'll take from you is another prank to get suspended right?" Arthur asked calmly. He glanced over in the direction of Gilbert in time to see the albino wave a hand at him.

"Pft. Whatever." Gilbert responded.

Arthur smiled a bit. Gilbert probably knew the principal's first name as many times as he had been in the office this year.

Matthew tilted himself slightly to peer around the curtain, and watched the principal performing a soundcheck with the microphone, "I wonder how this is going to go…what are we saying?" He glanced back at Arthur and the others.

"No clue." Arthur sighed. He turned his head to look over his shoulder again at where Lovino was standing, still shaking.

"Eh…" Matthew whispered.

"Cheer up man. You're not alone." Gilbert clapped Lovino on the shoulder.

"I-I don't want t-to speak…" Lovino whispered through gritted teeth, "Damn it…"

Arthur turned front again and saw Matthew finally putting his own wall scroll down on the table with the other three, "Then who is going first?"

"Rock-paper-scissors?" Gilbert asked.

"No. I am not going first." Arthur spoke up quickly, "And obviously Lovino isn't." He needed time to get himself under control, because right now _he_ was about to start shaking from nervousness.

"Eh I guess it's me. Gilbert should be the comic relief at the end with his Ta-da." Matthew laughed quietly. At least he seemed to be in good spirits today. Not like yesterday.

"Sweet!" Gilbert pumped his fist into the air, "You all are gonna let me do it~"

"Fine, then I'll go second. Lovino are you going to be okay third?" Arthur looked over at the still-shaking Italian. _'Is he going to be okay at all doing this?'_

"Sure. I'll figure out something to say by then…" Lovino said, not having problems with his words this time, but still shaking slightly.

Arthur smiled and looked out at the stage again. _'Hopefully this goes off without anything happening.'_ He shook his head. _'…I hope Allistor and Reilly aren't at the assembly…'_ He frowned again. Maybe they could stand somewhere offstage so no one would see them. But that would defeat the purpose of the assembly wouldn't it?

.

.

Alfred propped his knees up on the seat in front of him, staring at the stage with a look that could be read as annoyance or boredom. The lights had flickered once already and were now dimming completely. At least that meant it was starting soon. He watched as the principal performed a soundcheck with the microphone, but didn't bother to fix his posture even as Mr. Smith began speaking.

"Students…family members. Once again I call you down here. I am sure the assembly is still fresh in your minds from the other day. The one that took four of your classmates away from you, and today, we are gathered here for that same reason." Mr. Smith looked around the room.

"Not again." Cruz sank in his seat, "Don't tell me someone else did this." No need to ask what "this" refers to. It was rather obvious.

Roderich continued to sit in silence, but a look of dread passed over his face.

"Dude. If someone else did this, I will scream." Alfred spoke up, speaking in a flat tone, "Literally."

"That would almost be worth hearing." Antonio muttered, a far-off look in his eyes.

'_No it wouldn't. It would not be worth someone else's life.'_ Alfred didn't say his thought out loud though, and continued to watch the stage.

"Today is the day after, two of you know as the greatest prank ever to pull on this school. For me, it is the day after the most ridiculous prank ever to be pulled on this school." Mr. Smith said, obviously annoyed.

Alfred grinned. _'Heck yeah.'_ He glanced over as Roderich broke his silence finally.

"Two of you…" Roderich said calmly before turning his head to look at the three sitting beside him. "So which of you decided to play hero?" _'Well when he says it like that, isn't it obvious?'_

"Not me. I was stuck in the bathroom." Cruz said instantly. _'You weren't there when we went to get you.'_ Alfred mentally stuck his tongue out at Cruz before glancing at Antonio.

"His idea." Antonio pointed at Alfred, "Not mine. I was protesting the whole way."

"Totally saved your school records!" Alfred grinned.

"Thanks. A lot." Cruz grumbled, "Not like it could have possibly gotten any worse."

"Idiots." Roderich shook his head, but went back to looking at the stage.

Alfred continued grinning and returned his attention to the principal, who had begun speaking again.

"But this prank was one of the most well-thought out that I have ever seen. Yesterday I had seven people down in my office, including a teacher, for acting out during class. Yesterday, I had seven reasons to believe that finally something happened in this school that promoted a positive change." Mr. Smith smiled a bit and glanced around the auditorium once more, "And so, today, we have four guest speakers to talk to all of you." Mr. Smith looked offstage to something that no one in the audience could see.

"Four?" Alfred whispered, "We have to sit through four speakers?" He whimpered and slumped in his seat, "How many classes do you think we're going to miss here?"

"Who knows." Roderich sighed.

"Who cares." Cruz grumbled.

.

.

"If the first speaker would come out…" Mr. Smith called over to them.

Arthur looked at Matthew, who seemed to be frozen in spot. _'Am I going first after all?' _But no. Matthew started heading for the stage.

"Wah…" Matthew whimpered, "Butterflies in my stomach."

"Good luck!" Gilbert called quietly.

Matthew didn't respond, Arthur wasn't entirely sure that Matthew had even heard Gilbert. Maybe he could get an idea or two of what to say from listening to Matthew speak. Arthur walked closer to the curtain and watched as the small blonde made his way along the back of the stage.

"Oh he's cheating." Gilbert laughed.

"No one said we had to remain _in sight." _Arthur commented, rather grateful that Matthew had decided to go along the back. It meant Arthur could follow when it was his turn to come out. Arthur couldn't hear the quiet exchange of words between Matthew and the principal, just saw them whispering to one another.

"Fine then. Apparently I'm moving the microphone." Mr. Smith spoke into the mic again, looking back towards the audience, "One moment." He picked up the mic stand and walked back to where Matthew was standing and put the microphone stand in front of him, "This speaker, is one who attended this school before, and wishes to speak out against the everyday behavior he noticed while being here."

'_Oh he planned this out already? Good for Matthew.'_ Arthur nodded, not realizing it was the principal's idea, not Matthew's that was being said.

Matthew seemed to hesitate before finally speaking. "Um…so Mr. Smith said why I was here, and to tell you the truth, I'm beginning to realize that maybe over the last couple days while I was thinking about this, that maybe I was the one misunderstanding what other people were trying to do…"

Arthur tilted his head. _'Did he really? I didn't think that through any of the classes.'_ Arthur watched in curiosity.

"But at the time, I felt as though it was the most difficult thing that I would face. Getting up for school was not something I looked forward to every morning. It was something I dreaded. I absolutely detest gym class, because for some reason we can't play touch-tackle instead of full-out-push-the-other-person's-face-in-the-mud-tackle." Matthew continued talking, though the nervousness was starting to show through. It sounded like he was getting quieter.

Arthur chuckled at the gym class comment, remembering a suggestion that had been submitted to the student council regarding it. _'I wonder if that was Matthew.'_

"Going to every class in the hallway by myself, and getting knocked into like we're playing bumper cars. Seriously, you all can slow down a bit…" Matthew sighed.

Arthur nodded in silent agreement. This was true. Some students treated the hallway like it was a race course. He raised his eyebrow at seeing the principal walk away from Matthew for the second time. He was apparently having problems controlling his laughter.

"Just stay over there why don't you?" Matthew called to the principal.

Arthur couldn't help but laugh in response to that. He watched as Matthew shook his head and went back to talking again.

"But while I was thinking about everything I didn't like about school…I also remembered what I did like about it. I loved seeing my friends every day. I enjoyed talking to them, and the school lunches, despite the complaints, they could be much, much worse. You could be somewhere else and drink an entire bottle of gravy under the mistaken belief it's fruit juice." Matthew, at this point, leaned forward to look in their direction.

Arthur gaped at Matthew, "That was gravy? Are you kidding me?" He looked over at Lovino and Gilbert. Lovino's jaw was dropped in shock, Gilbert was just about on the floor from laughing so hard, "You…" He raised his hand to hit Gilbert over the head, severely tempted to do so. "You stupid git!"

"I can't believe he said that~" Gilbert laughed, "Mattie is awesome!" He shielded his head from the incoming slap.

Arthur scowled and turned to the stage again, "I don't believe this."

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Alfred tilted his head while listening to the speaker. This person sounded really familiar from somewhere. But he couldn't figure out from where. The person he was thinking of…it couldn't possibly be, right? However, at the mention of the food, Alfred got sidetracked almost instantly. "What?" Alfred gaped, "What kind of horrible place was this?"

"Oh my word. A bottle of gravy?" Antonio shuddered in horror, "UGH!"

"That sounds like the lunches are an unspeakable horror." Roderich commented.

"This person sounds really familiar." Cruz stated flatly, voicing Alfred's thoughts from a minute ago.

"Oh? Do you know who it is?" Roderich asked, leaning forward to look over at Cruz, who was sitting the immediate left of Alfred. Antonio was sitting in between Alfred and Roderich, probably a good thing since Roderich had just found out it was Alfred's idea to take the fall for the event of the day before.

"Yeah and if it is who I think it is, I am going to KILL THEM." Cruz scowled.

"Bad Cruz is back." Alfred laughed.

"Shut up." Cruz hit him over the back of the head.

"Ow!" Alfred yelped, rubbing the back of his head, "That hurt!" Okay, so maybe it wasn't a good thing to sit next to someone who hated him, either.

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"So the lunches here really aren't all that much to complain about. They're edible at least. It's something to look forward to when you all get up in the morning." Matthew continued on, while Arthur continued to listen. _'He's really doing a good job, though. For just thinking this up on the spot.'_ Arthur smiled.

"Was the food that bad?" Mr. Smith asked, walking back over to Matthew.

"Well I know there is certainly a member of the audience who would have been outraged at what they called a hamburger." Matthew responded. He leaned forward again.

Arthur clutched his sides from laughing so hard. He actually said that!

"Ja, I'm sure people will know who we are, quite obvious." Gilbert smirked.

"Oh, great. So he's going to know who it is before I even hit the stage." Lovino scoffed, "That just helps the nervousness a bit. Thanks."

"No problem~" Gilbert laughed, even though it was obvious Lovino was being sarcastic.

"That sounds appetizing." Mr. Smith commented in response dryly.

"Imagine eating it." Matthew responded, "Anyway…there were some things coming to school that I didn't even realize I was looking forward to until I realized I couldn't come here any more. Even though the teachers have a monotone voice when they're talking…eh…no offense…"

"The teachers back at the other facility are even worse…"Arthur grumbled, able to stand up straight again. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Gilbert and Lovino both nodding in agreement.

"They really were putting us at their best interest, and trying to teach in a way they thought we would learn the subjects…even though we're never going to use it again. Unless we become a teacher of course. But that's a little redundant." Matthew looked over again as Mr. Smith walked away laughing again, "Seriously, just stay over there."

Arthur chuckled as Matthew looked back out at the audience, giving an audible sigh, "But I didn't realize all of this then. I only saw what was upsetting me, and I didn't have the courage or strength to go to the guidance office, or to talk to my best friend about it. So I kept quiet. And that was probably the worst mistake I will ever make in my entire life."

"Hey, he's doing a really good job with this." Gilbert commented, "Seriously."

"Yeah he is." Arthur agreed, nodding, "And he's covering most of the things we had to talk about, so that'll just make our speeches shorter."

"Thank you." Lovino whispered.

"I know the assembly you all had on teenage suicide was hard to sit through. The speaker wasn't very…considerate about how he was talking. And there really wasn't much else to be done except react on it, and…everyone did just that. We all react differently to different situations. That's how I got where I was at for the past…almost a week."

Arthur tilted his head as Matthew suddenly jumped a bit and went to take out his phone. _'Who is texting him now? Unless Cruz realized who it was…'_ Arthur leaned forward and looked out at the audience, but from where he was at, he could only see where the family members were sitting. And unfortunately, noticed his parents along with his three brothers sitting in the third row. _'Damn it.'_

"Maybe it was my fault for overreacting, but looking back at what I realized the past week…I wouldn't change anything if I had the chance to. Because this is probably the only way I would have learned what I have."

Arthur looked up. That had sounded like Matthew was done. And he was. Because he handed off the microphone to the principal. Of all the times to notice where his family was, it had to be _right_ before it was his turn.

"Next speaker?" Mr. Smith called.

Arthur sighed and made his way along the back of the stage, taking the microphone when it was offered to him. His face was still slightly burning as he looked at Matthew, "Thank you for telling me about the gravy _after_ I drank it. I was sick because of that."

"No problem~" Matthew smiled.

Arthur looked back towards the audience, hearing some response of laughter to their talking. He sighed but attempted to focus some of the energy he had used yesterday when yelling at his class for not paying attention. "Well the first speaker pretty much summarized what we all have been thinking the past few days. But seeing as how we're forced to speak…" Arthur shot a glare at Mr. Smith over his shoulder before looking back out at the audience again. "Here we all have to stand, and you all have to sit there through this. My sincerest apologies."

.

.

"At least someone's apologizing for it." Roderich commented, "A speaker with manners. What a novel concept."

"Yeah anyway." Alfred laughed, "How nice!" He didn't want to voice his thoughts that the speaker sounded _exactly_ like someone he had just spoken recently to on the phone.

.

.

"I'm sure most of you would rather be in class right now. Some of you would rather be at home sleeping." Arthur smiled, noticing some of the students instantly slumped, seeing the pattern in his speech as compared to the speaker from five days ago. "And after listening to basically the same startup to a speech five days ago, I have to admit, I would much rather be here than anywhere else. And if anyone here ever has to take an emotional aptitude test, LIE." Arthur snapped, "Don't answer that thing honestly."

"Don't listen to that." Mr. Smith cut in, interrupting him, "I will take that soon." He motioned to the microphone.

"You would be doing me a favor." Arthur responded, looking at the principal with a look that said go-ahead-and-take-the-damn-thing, "So, the first speaker said it, where we were at was much worse than here I guarantee it. Though I notice you left out the wonderful sleeping arrangements." Arthur looked back at Matthew.

"That only qualifies if someone was actually sleeping." Matthew responded, loud enough for the microphone to pick it up so the audience could hear it.

"This is true." Arthur turned around again, "Apparently I'm the only one who got any sleep." Arthur shrugged.

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Alfred stared at the stage in silence. Seriously? Someplace that had the most awful food and awful sleeping arrangements…what kind of person would go there? And somehow that test warning tied into it. Alfred tilted his head. _'If it is him, I am going to make him pay for making me believe he was a ghost.'_

.

.

"But he was right. There are so many things at this school to look forward to, aside from gym class, I share his opinion on that. And the hallways, some people really do need to slow down, it's a school not a bloody racetrack." Arthur added. He noticed that his family had reacted to the mannerism of speech that had slipped in. The looks on Reilly and Allistor's faces were rather amusing, if it hadn't been the I'm-Going-To-Kill-You look that went on Allistor's immediately after the shock left. Arthur shuddered slightly, "But the reason I stopped coming to this school, I realized, it wasn't worth getting myself depressed over. It's just one person out of countless more in the world, and as much as I do NOT want to admit it, my family is there, whether I like it or not." Arthur sighed, noticing the look on Allistor's face had not changed at all. Even with the last comment thrown in, actually it was probably _because_ of the last comment that his facial expression didn't change. Reilly was actually now wearing a similar one. Arthur glanced over and noticed Matthew had walked away, shaking silently in laughter. He made a face and held up the mic closer, "Like you should be laughing over there. You have the most over protective brother I have ever met in my life."

Both Matthew and Mr. Smith burst out laughing in response to Arthur's comment. Arthur shook his head and looked forward again. From his view, he found where Alfred was sitting, and was a little surprised to see that he and Cruz were actually getting along well enough to be sitting next to each other.

"So I'm rather glad I got the opportunity to attend somewhere else. There were classes there that opened my eyes, one in particular, but I refuse to comment on it. I'm still rejecting half the things they said." Arthur sighed in frustration, still refusing to admit he was lonely at all, "And I also discovered that there are people in this school…" Arthur looked pointedly at where Alfred was sitting, even though Alfred couldn't see him, "Who will contact someone by phone. No matter what time it is, no matter what the situation, they will call your cell phone. And they will leave a voicemail message that's over five minutes long."

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.

Alfred's face turned dark red and he instantly sunk in his seat, knees dropping off the back of the seat in front of him.

"Do you know who this speaker is?" Cruz leaned over the armrest in between them.

"Oh shut up." Alfred sunk lower in his seat, his face still burning. He just HAD to mention that! And that meant he had actually listened to the whole voicemail. _'Damn it, damn it, damn it!'_ Alfred buried his face in his hands. He could feel a hand patting his shoulder in comfort, but couldn't tell if it was Antonio or Cruz, and didn't have the strength to lift his head up and look.

.

.

Arthur smiled seeing Alfred's response to what he had said. _'Serves you right.' _He shook his head and relaxed a bit. "But. I will thank that person anyway. Because without that voicemail, I wouldn't have realized the few things that I did." Arthur noticed Alfred had instantly looked up in response to that. He smiled and offered the microphone to the principal, but found Matthew took it instead.

"Do not anger him when there's a yardstick within grabbing distance. He knows how to use one." Matthew said flatly.

"Thank you for that." Arthur hit Matthew over the head and handed the mic to the principal.

"Not even going to ask. Third speaker?" Mr. Smith sighed.

Arthur stepped back beside Matthew and watched as Lovino made his way across the stage.

"Eh. It's okay. It's safe." Matthew called over when Lovino had reached them, Arthur chuckled in response.

"Shut it." Lovino hissed quietly, grabbing the mic, "Okay, so I don't have much to say in addition to the first two who spoke up. But I will say, thanks to a relative who I can see already…that I am, unfortunately, grateful for the class he was teaching yesterday. Despite it being annoyingly long, I did learn something out of it, besides insults that I could use against him. The way you all reacted to that assembly, none of you did anything wrong."

Arthur nodded in silence. Lovino really had been thinking about what he said in his last letter.

"I know some of you were laughing, and it really did make it sound like you were laughing at those who were suffering from depression, but you weren't. And I realize that now." Lovino sighed, "You all react the way you were taught to. Some of you laugh off situations that would otherwise make you feel uncomfortable or down…and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Just…let people know around you that you're not laughing at them. Otherwise there's going to be someone out there that's going to blow it entirely out of proportion. Much like I did."

Arthur smiled. Lovino was really going out on a limb, and the same metaphorical limb that Matthew and he, himself, had used when they were talking. It was rather obvious to those that knew them who they were. _'Still. He's apologizing at the same time for what he said. That must have been why he was so nervous.'_

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Alfred smiled a bit. It was nice to hear that their reactions weren't wrong in any way. A speaker (who Alfred knew quite well) who apologized for making them sit there through the speeches, and a speaker who said that there was nothing wrong with how they had reacted to a very badly given speech. This was just the thing to make people cheer up. And the fact that the second speaker was Arthur had absolutely nothing to do with it. _'That would make the first speaker Mattie, then right? He had to have been the other voice I recognized. It certainly wasn't Gilbert. I wonder if he's the last speaker then?'_

.

.

"The situation was what it was…none of you did anything wrong in responding to it. The speaker really did fail at some points in explaining, and that is why we're up here." Lovino looked back at where Matthew and Arthur were standing, "But at least we made some new friends out of this."

Arthur smiled and nodded in agreement. That was the one good thing they had gotten out of that experience.

"Have fun with the next speaker." Lovino handed off the mic to the principal and quickly moved back to where Arthur was standing.

"Of course he would be last." The principal forced a smile, "Last speaker…don't make me regret this." It sounded like the principal had said the last sentence through gritted teeth as Gilbert appeared next to him.

"Ja, ja. Whatever. Gimme." Gilbert smirked and held out his hand for the microphone.

Arthur started laughing. This was going to be a very Gilbert-style speech.

"I mean it." Mr. Smith growled and handed Gilbert the microphone before stepping back.

"Boy. Some people are stiff." Gilbert scoffed at the principal (who glowered in response) and held the microphone up, "Ja, so we got to spend our time in the most boring place imaginable. I don't think I learned a single thing by attending any of the classes. And I certainly didn't learn anything at the lunch, though I know two other people learned how to read." Gilbert looked back at Arthur and Lovino.

Arthur glared at Gilbert in response.

"I shall call you the gravy-drinker duo." Gilbert smirked at Arthur and Lovino and turned back to the audience, "But ja, despite all complaints about the totally inedible food, the annoying person who completely FAILED at being a counselor, I learned something anyway~"

Arthur scowled but looked out at the audience, startled by a sudden "HOW RUDE!" that sounded across the stage. Apparently whoever it was directed at was sitting close to the front.

"I didn't even say it was you, shut up." Gilbert looked over towards the direction the voice had come from, causing Arthur, Matthew, and Lovino to start laughing again.

"Oh my word." Mr. Smith slapped the palm of his hand to his forehead, "I knew I was going to regret this."

Gilbert glared at the principal, "You wanted us to speak. Be careful what you wish for." He looked back and held the microphone up again.

"Clearly a mistake on my part." The principal sighed heavily.

Gilbert turned his head to stick his tongue out at the principal before continuing on, "Ja, so really I didn't learn a single thing from that crap place we were at, other than there are totally three awesome people I've never spoken to at school behind me now~" Gilbert flashed a grin in their direction before looking back again, "And those beds suck there, but that's besides the point."

Arthur sighed but smiled anyway.

"Two nights ago was it? The night we didn't get any sleep whatsoever anyway. Ja, we had the most wonderful wake-up call, und I mean totally rude wake-up call when I say that. The most unappealing breakfast I have ever seen, I think the only thing edible was the sausage, the eggs probably were never from a bird at any point during their fake substitute lifetime." Gilbert waved a hand around while he was talking, despite no one in the audience (except maybe the very front row) being able to see him.

Arthur started laughing at the comment about the eggs. Normally substitute eggs didn't come from any kind of poultry! That was the point!

"Und after breakfast, as if it wasn't already downhill enough, I see you rolling your eyes, Mr. Stiff. You know what's coming." Gilbert called over to the same spot of the room he had earlier, "I get a call to go to a conference room that I have absolutely no clue where it's at. And of course the hall monitor insisted on taking me down there herself, I don't know why, she could have just given me directions. Und for the first time in sixteen-completely-blissful-nothing-wrong-with-them years, I got to meet my huge stiff of a dad."

Arthur quickly held a hand over his mouth to stop the laughter from taking over. He knew just by the nickname Gilbert used who he was talking to, specifically, and the thought of the response to that was making him laugh even harder. Beside him, Matthew seemed to be having the same problem. Lovino was shaking his head in disbelief.

"I see you glaring by the way. Apparently that half of the family doesn't know how to have fun. Big Stiff und Little Stiff, and so help me if I hear that comment about Little Stiff being taller than me again." Gilbert grumbled.

.

.

Alfred glanced over as Roderich spoke up.

"Hm. I think that was directed at me." Roderich commented.

"Is this for real?" Alfred asked, returning his gaze to the stage.

"If it is, I'm running for the stage door after this." Antonio grumbled, sinking in his seat.

.

.

"And despite all thoughts of absolutely not wanting to see the guy, I have to admit, it was _slightly_ nice to know that he had been looking for us all along. Even if I already knew that from overhearing a conversation in the hallway at school. Don't look so shocked, mutti." Gilbert waved towards the left side of the auditorium, "And despite the sarcastic conversation we had going back and forth, including some thoughts where I wanted to him with my metaphorical shovel…"

Arthur raised an eyebrow, hearing another (though it was a different voice this time) "HOW RUDE!" from the same corner of the auditorium.

"Same to you." Gilbert retorted, "Anyway despite all that, it was nice to actually hold a conversation with him. And get the permanent look of shock off your face or I _will_ hit you with something physical." Gilbert snapped.

Arthur burst out laughing, unable to stop it any longer.

"Und Big Stiff obviously doesn't listen to anything someone says, because despite my saying NO, loud and clear, und that I liked my life just the way it was, I still wake up in a hospital several hours later." Gilbert continued talking, "So thanks to the completely unawesome-blank-faced-stiff-with-no-emotion-whatsoever, turns out I'm not going to be leaving this place early after all."

Arthur's jaw dropped. He could NEVER get away with calling his dad that. _'Oh for…Gilbert really does not like his dad at all!'_

"That's the face I was talking about." Gilbert started laughing, pointing to the same corner again, "Much better. Anyway, I'm done now." He looked back at the principal, grinning.

Arthur blinked as Matthew walked by and took the microphone from Gilbert, who looked rather surprised, as did the principal, "Eh. One last thing."

Arthur tilted his head in confusion. Now what?

"I know there are quite a few people who realized who we are already, mostly from accents I'm sure." Matthew looked back at Arthur and Gilbert.

Arthur scowled in response.

"Mine included." Matthew added and turned back front, "But, for those of you who haven't realized it yet…" He sighed and stepped forward a couple paces, "Four days ago I faked my own death in the Mission for Change, my name is Matthew Williams." He looked back at the others, now standing in full light. The expression on his face was rather pleading.

Arthur sighed and stepped forward, taking the microphone as well, "My name is Arthur Kirkland, I committed suicide for the Mission for Change." He held the microphone behind him for Lovino.

"Four stupidly-long-days-ago, I committed suicide for the mission for change. Lovino Vargas." Lovino snapped, stepping forwards, and quickly handed off the mic to Gilbert.

Arthur leaned forward to look over at Gilbert, who was still grinning. _'Now is he going to say it?'_

"Ja, My name is Gilbert Beilschmidt, I pretended to die an early death in the Mission for Change." Gilbert looked over at the principal who was nodding, and held up the mic grinning, "But we are back again, TA-DA~"

Arthur burst out laughing, as did Matthew and Lovino.

"How did I guess you were going to say something like that." Mr. Smith stepped forward and grabbed the microphone from Gilbert, glaring at the albino.

"You know me too well~" Gilbert laughed, "You're totally buying my lunch now, right?" He looked over at Arthur, hopefully.

"Yes, yes." Arthur nodded, waving a hand around dismissively, barely controlling his fits of laughter. He glanced to the left again and saw the expressions on his brothers' faces. _'Okay. Run.'_

"I'm out of here!" Lovino hissed, and Arthur quite agreed with him.

Arthur hurried off stage, following along behind Lovino and Matthew, his face starting to turn red from embarrassment. Behind him, Gilbert happily skipped off the stage, apparently the only one NOT suffering from any kind of humiliation.

"I can't believe that!" Arthur started laughing, once they were away from the stares of their classmates, "You actually said it!"

"Ja, of course." Gilbert smirked, "Principal doesn't like me already~"

Lovino sighed in quiet relief, "It's over…"

"Eh. We still have to make it through school today." Matthew looked over at him. Arthur winced while picking up his wall scroll. How on earth, did he forget about that?

"Damn it." Lovino grumbled. Apparently he wasn't the only one.

Arthur watched as Matthew took his wall scroll and stepped out into the hallway. "Well that turned out rather well." Arthur smiled as Gilbert wandered out into the hall as well.

"You can go out next." Lovino stated, pointing to the door.

"Hm? Why don't you want to…" Arthur wandered out the doorway and into the hall and promptly found out why. "OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"

"IGGY~" Alfred cheered, now tightly holding onto Arthur.

"FOUR." Arthur got an arm free and hit Alfred four times over the head, "DO NOT CALL ME THAT! AND I AM NOT CUTE DAMN IT!" Arthur growled, as he could feel his face burning in even more embarrassment.

"Owwww~ You were seriously keeping track!" Alfred cried, but, much to Arthur's surprise, didn't let go.

Arthur scowled, "Let. Go."

"Nope~" Alfred rested his chin on the top of Arthur's head, "I missed you~"

"You left a bloody five minute long voicemail on my phone!" Arthur snapped, "I think I realized that already!"

Alfred made a face above him and nuzzled on the top of Arthur's head, "But now you're back so I feel better~!"

"Oh I'm sure you do. Hopefully better enough to not skip class and spend it on the roof calling a dead person's cell phone again." Arthur commented flatly._ 'Idiot.'_

"How mean."Alfred pouted, "Oh that's right." He suddenly looked up, "I forgot about something, come this way a seeeeec!"

Not like Arthur had a choice because he was suddenly being dragged down the hallway, past where Gilbert and Roderich were at. Arthur scowled, but suddenly realized Antonio and Lovino where nowhere in sight. Where did they go off to? The last time he had noticed, Lovino was chasing Antonio after getting tackled by him the instant he came out of the doorway.

"Where are we even going?" Arthur sighed, attempting to keep up with Alfred's longer strides.

"Here they come." Alfred abruptly let go of Arthur's hand and patted him on the back instead, "Good luck with that."

"Hm?" Arthur looked at him in confusion but suddenly found himself being tackled for the second time…and third time, "What the hell is with you idiots?"

"LIKE YOU SHOULD TALK!" Allistor yelled, "You scared us you bloody moron!"

Arthur slapped his hand to his forehead. Surrounded by idiots. Terrific. He scowled in response to his older brother, "Since when do you two scare easily? And it wasn't like I had a choice in the matter!" Technically he didn't. It was either go and everyone assumed he was dead, or go and everyone knew where he was at, and somehow _at the time_ the thought of his brothers and Alfred laughing were not at all comforting. Wasn't comforting now either, but somehow Arthur was getting the impression that they would not have laughed.

"Horror movies don't scare me, however hearing wee brother committed suicide, and hearing that stupid damned letter on top of it, scared me." Allistor growled.

"Aye." Reilly nodded in agreement.

Arthur sighed, half in relief due to the fact that they had stepped back and he was able to breathe at least, and half in frustration, because they obviously did not understand what was going through his head. Probably for the better.

"So as long as Iggy doesn't do something like that again, we're good~" Alfred smiled, wrapping an arm around Arthur's shoulders.

"You really want hit over the head don't you?" Arthur glared up at Alfred. Stupid height difference, "I said, don't call me that."

"Iggy is cute name for wee brother though." Allistor tilted his head, any traces of anger leaving.

"See, he totally agrees with me!" Alfred laughed.

Reilly ducked as Arthur smacked Alfred and Allistor over the head, "Saw that one coming."

"I AM NOT CUTE DAMN IT!" Arthur yelled. He glared at Reilly, half expecting his other brother to say something, but the oldest just shrugged.

"Not getting involved. Glad to see you're alive though." Reilly ruffled Arthur's hair cheerfully.

Arthur felt his face growing hot again, but didn't push Reilly away this time.

"Arthurrrrr, you're mean~" Alfred pouted, rubbing the back of his head, "That's the fifth time you hit me now!"

"That's the fifth time you deserved it." Arthur snapped. He heard footsteps and turned his head to see Gilbert and Roderich coming up the hall. Oh right. Roderich's note. It was no wonder the normally-unfazed male was now looking a bit uncomfortable.

"Yay~ so much better to be in this place!" Gilbert laughed, one arm around Roderich's shoulders.

"Really?" Arthur asked, "Even with the blank-faced stiff of no emotion?"

"Mein gott …" Gilbert slumped, "I don't wanna deal with him…"

Roderich patted Gilbert sympathetically on the back, remaining silent.

"Ja. Well you're dealing with it anyway."

Arthur peered around Allistor and saw Regis was only a few steps away, "Oh that was bad timing. Leaving now." He quickly hurried back down the hall in the direction that Matthew and Cruz were still in.

"Wait for meeeee!" Alfred hurried after him, "Iggy~"

"Don't call me that!" Arthur snapped, turning around just in time to get tackled AGAIN, "Allistor what the bloody hell-"

"I ain't pulling him off." Reilly said flatly, "Something about a rude phone conversation…?"

Arthur's face turned red, "I was missing class. Deal with it."

"Aye. I am dealing with it." Allistor retorted, tightening his grip on Arthur.

Alfred skipped over from where he had stopped next to Reilly, "Group hug~"

Arthur let out a loud, long sigh at the three-way embrace he was now getting. _'Well these three get along perfectly.'_ But he didn't make any attempt to push them away. Actually for the moment, though he wasn't about to admit it out loud, he was rather grateful for the support in standing. Arthur smiled, though it was hidden by him leaning his head on the shoulder in front of him (more than likely belonging to Allistor). _'Home…'_

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><p>And that is the ending of Life with Lyrics-British Style. :3 Leave me a final review?<p> 


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